National Medical Birth Register

The Medical Birth Register provides statistics on pregnancies, labour and newborns. The Register started in 1973, and it covers all pregnancies resulting in childbirth in Sweden.

Purpose of the Register

The purpose of the Register is to describe events and outcomes for women during pregnancy and labour, and for children in the neonatal period. Data from this Register can be used to answer such questions as:

  • What is the average age of women giving birth, and how does it vary across the country?
  • How many pregnant women smoke, and how many have a high BMI?
  • What type of pain management is used during labour among first-time mothers/second-time mothers?
  • What are the proportion of grade-III and grade-IV ruptures during vaginal birth delivery?
  • What percentage of children are born prematurely?

Contents of the Medical Birth Register

The National Medical Birth Register covers pregnancies leading to childbirth in Sweden since 1973. The Register contains data on pregnancies, labour and newborns reported by maternity, obstetric and newborn care services. Newborns as well as stillbirths with a gestational age of at least 22+0 weeks are included (before 1 July 2008, stillbirths were included from week 28+0). Only data for which there exists a clear justification for nationwide collection at the individual level are included in the Register.

The data include previous pregnancies, smoking habits, place of delivery, length of pregnancy, pain management, type of delivery, maternal and infant diagnoses, treatments, the baby's sex, weight, length and head circumference, and the baby's condition at birth.

Through a link to Statistics Sweden's register, data are retrieved for the Medical Birth Register, including the child's personal ID number, the municipality where the mother was registered at the time of birth, information on the nationality of both parents and the mother's country of birth.

For the full list of all variables see the list of variables.

For information about the quality of the Register, such as missing data, variable content and history, see Production and quality of the Medical Birth Register 

National Register of Congenital Anomalies

Linked to the Medical Birth Register is the Register of Congenital Anomalies.

Legal regulation of the Register

The National Medical Birth Register is a health data register that is regulated by the Health Data Register Act (1998:543) and the associated regulation (2001:708). These also regulate what information may be included in the Register and the obligation of healthcare providers to provide information to the Register.

Statistics based on the Register

Extract statistics from the database.

For ordering statistics from the Register of Social Assistance, see Ordering data and statistics (only available in Swedish).

The Register can also be linked with other health data registers. For example, linking with the National Prescribed Drug Register can help connect drug use and pregnancy, while linking with the National Patient Register can enable follow-up of seriously ill children.

Contact

National Medical Birth Register
Phone number: +46 75-247 30 00
Last updated:
Published: