Hospital births up in Canada: report

About 374,000 babies were born in Canadian hospitals in 2008-09, a new national report shows.

The births represent an increase of 4.8 per cent from the 2006-07 fiscal year, the Canadian Institute for Health Information said Tuesday in releasing the new statistics.

The institute, which gathers data on health-care in Canada, also looked at rates across the country of caesarean sections, use of epidurals, vacuum-assisted and forceps-assisted deliveries and low birth weight.

In the latest report, Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia showed the highest rates for a first C-section, at 23.1 per cent and 22.3 per cent, respectively, compared with the national average of 18.5 per cent. Quebec and Manitoba had the lowest rates at 15.7 per cent and 13.5 per cent.

Last January, several Canadian medical groups released a policy statement saying medical interventions such as caesarean deliveries shouldn't be routinely done for low-risk pregnancies.

Epidural rates for all deliveries continued to vary among provinces, with a national rate of 55.2 per cent. More than two thirds (69.0 per cent) of vaginal deliveries in Quebec and 60.0 per cent in Ontario involved an epidural, compared with 38.5 per cent in Manitoba and 30 per cent in British Columbia.

Since 2006, Ontario and Quebec have also had the highest epidural rates among vaginal deliveries. There were also significant increases in epidural rates for vaginal deliveries in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island over the same period.

In contrast, epidural rates for vaginal deliveries decreased in the Yukon, from 37.5 per cent to 21.0 per cent.

Assisted delivery rates

Rates of vacuum-assisted and forceps-assisted deliveries in Canada were 9.9 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively. The rate of vacuum-assisted delivery ranged from 12.9 per cent in Saskatchewan down to four per cent in Prince Edward Island.

Forceps were used less frequently than vacuum extraction, with the highest provincial rates found in Newfoundland and Labrador, at 5.5 per cent, and the lowest rate in Prince Edward Island, at 2.3 per cent.

About six per cent of babies born in a hospital in Canada weighed under 2,500 grams, or 5.5 pounds. No significant changes were seen in the rates of low birth weight among the provinces and territories between 2006 and 2009.

Low birth weight may add to the length of hospital stays and to health-care costs, the institute said.

In March 2009, the results of a federal survey by the Public Health Agency of Canada suggested about 80 per cent of mothers interviewed between five and 14 months after giving birth said the overall experience was either "very positive" or "somewhat positive."