Radical
Statistics
REVIEWS
Birth counts: statistics of pregnancy and childbirth
Mcfarlane, A., and Mugford, M. (2000) Birth Counts: Statistics of Pregnancy & Childbirth. Volume 1. Second edition, London: The Stationary Office, 447 pages.
Mcfarlane, A., Mugford, M., Henderson, J., Furtado, A., Stevens, J., and Dunn A. (2000) Birth Counts: Statistics of Pregnancy & Childbirth. Volume 2, Second edition, London: The Stationary Office, 673 pages.
Review by Sarah E. Johns
Understanding trends and changes in both pregnancy and childbirth is important for many social scientists. Such information can provide an accurate picture of how health of new-borns and their mothers has improved, if infant mortality, an important indicator of overall population health, has risen or declined, and whether single motherhood and teenage pregnancy have really increased during the last fifty years. They can also tell an interested researcher if social or demographic characteristics of parents have changed over time, and if children in today's world are facing better or worse health and environmental conditions than in the past.
The second edition of Birth Counts: Statistics of Pregnancy and Childbirth is an ideal resource for addressing such issues. Although retaining many of the features of the first edition, the strength of the second edition lies in its analysis of recent birth statistics. Moreover, it has taken into account the call for truly national statistics that examine all areas of the United Kingdom equally. The approach will lead to a more balanced view of pregnancy and birth throughout all areas of the UK, as the amount of data from Scotland and Northern Ireland, which were under-represented in the first edition, has been increased.
The authors must be congratulated for managing to place NHS and government statistics into a readable and useful format. They have reviewed statistics and literature that focus on both maternal and infant health, pregnancy and related complications, socio-economic characteristics of parents, and the resultant environment of the infant. All of these factors present an extremely clear view of pregnancy and birth across the UK, and all social scientist and demographers will find the authors assessment of such statistics remarkably beneficial.
The publication is comprised of two volumes. The first, using available statistics, reviews the main areas of pregnancy and childbirth, while the second volume provides tables of all the collected data. Volume one is divided into thirteen comprehensive and well-written chapters, into which clearly defined tables and diagrams are incorporated. Each chapter is rich in information, and the authors obviously want their publication to be both useful and used. They even include an appendix which list contacts for further information, and regularly update this information on the national Perinatal Epidemiology Unit web site. They also provide the reader with an index of official reports and classifications, a comprehensive glossary for the uninitiated, and a chronological list of events and legislation, dating from 1518, related to childbirth and pregnancy.
Volume two is a compilation of the statistics collected by the NHS and government departments. Such data includes child mortality, birthweight, mortality factors, birth control, abortion, parental profiles, disease, and teenage pregnancy. Inclusion of these data adds strength to the first volume, as one can actually see the figures for what has been previously detailed. The inclusion of data will also be of great interest to anyone who wishes to perform his or her own analysis of the government statistics. Enough detail has been included in the tables to allow for a multivariate approach to be taken. Furthermore, they will be very useful for anyone undertaking a historical analysis of most elements of pregnancy and birth, as much of the included data span the last 150 years, from the mid part of the nineteenth-century until the late 1990s.
A publication such as this will be useful and valuable to anyone needing pregnancy and childbirth information, statistics, and analysis. It will be a fantastic resource for both PhD students who require raw data or a historical perspective, and researchers whose interests include this topic, regardless of whether pregnancy or childbirth is their primary area of investigation. The authors have provided a comprehensive, relatively jargon free, resource that should be on the shelves of all those who need to understand how and why elements of childbirth and pregnancy have changed or remained static over time.
Sarah E. Johns
School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
University Road
Bristol
BS8 1SS
E-mail: Sarah.Johns@bristol.ac.uk
