Number of childbirths in Northern Netherlands

Table 1 presents the numbers of live births and stillbirths after 23 weeks of gestation in the provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. This is the ‘catchment area’ of Eurocat, representing approximately 10% of all births in the Netherlands. The data were obtained from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and are used as denominators for the calculation of prevalences.

Table 1. Total number of children born in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe by type of birth

1) Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS). CBS has no data concerning miscarriages and terminated
pregnancies.

Number of births with a congenital anomaly

Table 2 shows the number of children registered at Eurocat, by year and type of birth. Since 2010 there is a change in procedure. From this year onward, limited data on diagnosis and birth outcome of children whose parents do not respond to requests to participate were also registered.
The decline in numbers in the most recent years is largely caused by incomplete registration of all cases for these years. This can have a number of reasons:

1. It can take more than a year before a child is registered with Eurocat. Hospital administrations need time to generate overviews for Eurocat
2. Sometimes, the diagnosis of a congenital anomaly is not made until later in life
3. The procedure of obtaining permission from the parents may take a long time.

Table 2. Number and proportion of children with a congenital anomaly (Eurocat) by type of birth

1. Percentage of the total number of live births of the respective period
2. Percentage of the total number of stillbirths of the respective period 
3. Percentage of the total number of live births, stillbirths, miscarriages and terminated pregnancies of the respective period