Preterm Births are those at under 37 weeks gestational age.
Low Birth Weight are babies delivered at under 5lb 8oz (2500g).
Cesarean Births are "C-section" deliveries. The Healthy People 2020 target rate is 23.9% for low-risk, first-time mothers.
Determine the likelihood that a woman will have a preterm or low birth weight infant or will have a cesarean birth. Start by answering the four questions on this page.
Besides this risk calculator there are two other pages on this site:
Mapping Disparities is a data exploration tool for childbirth data across US states, counties, race, and age.
Reducing Risk presents two important ways for a mother to control maternity and infant related risks.
Here are the rates of childbirth complications for this demographic and location1. Preterm births, low birth weight, and cesarean births are common, but that does not mean they are completely safe. They do often cause problems, as demonstrated by the information in the three tabs below.
The rate of preterm births for this demographic and location is .
The chance of infant death for a low birth weight birth is , compared to for a birth with a normal weight.3
What are some consequences of preterm births?
These vary widely depending on whether it is a very early birth such as under 34 weeks.
The average hospital charges for a preterm birth is , whereas the average uncomplicated birth costs .2
The average hospital stay for a preterm birth is , compared to for an uncomplicated birth.2
The chance of infant death for a preterm birth is , compared to for a full term birth.3
Preterm birth can also cause health problems later in life. These include developmental delays and problems with digestion, eyes, lungs, and other areas. Please see the CDC page on preterm births for more information.
What are the risk factors for an individual person?
1Preterm, low birth weight, and cesarean rates for each county and demographic: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. VitalStats (accessed February 10, 2012).