Birthweight and gestation of single births in Belfast.

A study was made of mean birthweights and duration of gestation relating to community samples of single births to women resident in Belfast 1962-66. The mean birthweights and gestation times for livebirths were 3,303 g and 39.7 weeks and for perinatal deaths 2,060 g and 34.8 weeks respectively. Some 10 per cent of all perinatal deaths were of less than 28 weeks' gestation with 65.3 per cent weighing 2,500 g or less at birth. Low birthweight infants were more prevalent in Belfast than in several other comparable areas of the United Kingdom.