Newborns 2010

Of all newborn children in 2010 (61,371), 52 per cent were born in university hospitals, 37 per cent in central hospitals and 11 per cent in other hospitals. One in four children were born in Helsinki University Central Hospital (Kätilöopisto Maternity Hospital, HUCH Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Jorvi Hospital). There were 13 hospitals with fewer than 1,000 deliveries in 2010. There were 12 planned and 81 unplanned home deliveries outside hospitals; 57 children were born on the way to the hospital.

Premature infants (birth weight less than 2,500 g) accounted for 4.5 per cent of all births in 2010. In 2009−2010, a total of 1,086 small premature infants (birth weight less than 1,501 g or gestational age less than 32 weeks) were born; 88.1 per cent of these survived beyond the age of 12 months.

The percentage of infants with a birth weight of more than 4,000 g has decreased by just under 4 percentage points over the past 20 years, being 16.7 per cent in 2010.

In 2009-2010, 16.6 per cent of all births were by Cesarean section; slightly over half of these were urgent cases. Half of all the twins born were born by Cesarean section.

Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking affected 15.1 per cent per cent of children born in 2010. The highest incidence of smoking during pregnancy was found in the Hospital District of South Karelia and the lowest in the Åland Islands. On average, children born to mothers who were smokers weighed almost 200 g less than children born to non-smokers.

In 2010, the average age of newborn infants discharged from hospital was 3.1 days.

Figure 1. Average birth weight (g) and children with a birth weight of more than 4,000 g (%), 1990−2010.

• Download enclosed tables (xls, 365 kt)
• Download enclosed tables (pdf, 243 kt)
• Whole Statistical Summary (pdf, 408 kt)
• Statistica Graphs (ppt, 384 kt)