Differences in perinatal and infant mortality in high-income countries: artifacts of birth registration or evidence of true differences?

Table 1 Gestational age and birth weight criteria for registration of live births and stillbirths among selected high-income countries, 1995–2005

Country	Live birth	Stillbirth	Stillbirth registration following termination of pregnancy^a
Canada	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight	≥20 weeks or ≥500 g	Yes
USA	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight	≥20 weeks and/or ≥350 g^b	No
Denmark	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight	≥28 weeks till 2003 and ≥22 weeks from 2004	Yes
Finland	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight	≥22 weeks or ≥500 g	No
Iceland	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight	≥22 weeks or ≥500 g	Yes
Norway	≥16 weeks	≥16 weeks	No^c
Sweden	Any signs of life regardless of gestational age or birth weight^e	≥28 weeks	Yes

^aIf stillbirth definition is satisfied
^bA few states in the US report fetal deaths for all periods of gestation
^cIn Norway, pregnancy terminations ≥16 weeks were reported as stillbirths prior to 1999 and reported on a special form since 1999 Sweden did not report stillbirths <28 weeks until 2008
^eData set provided by Swedish birth register only included live births from 154 days (22 completed weeks)

ISSN: 1471-2431