Pre-term birth
Gestational age is the duration of pregnancy in completed weeks. Pre-term births are those that occur before 37 completed weeks of gestation. At term births occur between 37–41 weeks, and post-term births occur at 42 or more weeks.
Of all Indigenous babies born in 2018:
- 13% (2,249) were born pre-term.
- 87% (14,947) were born at term.
- Fewer than 1% (66) were born post-term (Figure MB 6).
Women who smoked tobacco during pregnancy were more likely to deliver pre-term babies than women who did not smoke. In 2017, 17% of Indigenous women who reported smoking during pregnancy delivered pre-term babies compared with 11% of Indigenous women who did not report smoking (Figure MB 7).