Birth injuries: incidence and predisposing factors.

The incidence of birth-associated major injuries among 14.265 live born infants during seven years is presented. The occurrence of major trauma was 3.16% or 441 injuries in 437 children. The most usual injury was fracture of the clavicle, which occurred in 3.0%, after that brachial plexus injury with occurrence of 0.11%, and fracture of long bones with 0.03%. In addition to that there was one child with facial nerve palsy. Four children had two birth injuries each. The most important causes of brachial plexus injury were macrosomia and shoulder dystocia. Eight of 16 children with brachial plexus injury had shoulder dystocia and six of 16 macrosomia. The frequency of macrosomia in our material of 14.265 children was 4.7%, which is much higher than earlier reports by other authors.