International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

The risks of newborn death and admission to neonatal intensive care are more common during night time deliveries, new research has shown.

Researchers in the Netherlands studied more than 700,000 births at hospitals in the country between 2000 and 2006, publishing their results in the obstetrics and gynaecology journal BJOG.

They found that infants born at smaller community hospitals in the Netherlands between 18:00 local time and midnight, or overnight - between midnight and 08:00 local time - were 32 per cent and 47 per cent more likely to die than those born during the day.

Larger medical centres did not have as much difference between day and night births despite the fact they were more likely to deal with high-risk pregnancies.

Dr Eric Steegers of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam told Reuters that the higher risks probably related to there being fewer senior members of staff available during night shifts.

"It is very important indeed to realise that risks are generally low."

Research this year from the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington showed that the worldwide infant mortality rate had dropped.

In 1990, 11.9 million children under five died and by 2010 this had fallen to 7.7 million.

Posted by Paul Robertson