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Estimates of perinatal death: a global initiative!

Journal of Perinatology volume 37, page 1248 (2017)Cite this article

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I read the interesting retrospective analysis1 evaluating perinatal outcomes of low birth weight (LBW) infants. LBW was reported to be a cause of adverse perinatal outcomes such as stillbirth (SB), neonatal asphyxia, increased cesarean section rate and neonatal death (NND). Stratified analysis performed to explore the effects of gestational age (GA) on outcomes showed that adverse events were reduced with increasing GA, especially at 34 to 36+6 weeks; however, LBW infants had higher risks of SB and NND than normal birth weight infants. Also, of the LBW group, infants who were preterm (28 to 33+6 weeks GA) had higher percentage of SB (11.8%) and NND (17.6%).

The study methods need some clarification for better understanding and meaningful analysis. The authors report ‘miscarriage before 28 weeks of gestation’ to be one of the exclusion criteria, however it is not clear from the paper whether premature livebirths before 28 weeks of gestation (wGA) were included and registered as such.

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References

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  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    S Chabra

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  1. S Chabra
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Correspondence to S Chabra.

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Chabra, S. Estimates of perinatal death: a global initiative!. J Perinatol 37, 1248 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2017.81

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