The rates of low and very low birthweight have increased for the Chapter between 1989 and 1994, although the increase for very low birthweight has been very slight. The Chapter's upward trend of low and very low birthweight has leveled off. Infant mortality associated with short gestation is a leading cause of infant death in the Chapter. The rate of prematurity increased in the Chapter overall between 1980 and 1993, when the trend leveled off and began to fall. New technologies, including intensive monitoring of and intervention in high-risk pregnancies, may be responsible for the reversal in the trend.
Birth defects are a leading cause of infant death in the chapter area.
Infant death rates vary considerably in different areas of the chapter. Based on these statistics, being born to a teenage mother is the single greatest threat to an infant's life. Births to mothers over age 34 have been increasing relatively steadily as a proportion of all births over the past 15 years. In all racial and ethnic groups, children born to thee older moms have a somewhat higher infant mortality rate than to those ages 18-34. However, in no case is the risk as great as for those births to women under age 18.