Babies born before arrival at the Coombe Women's Hospital, Dublin.

We report a study of all births occurring before arrival at the Coombe hospital from 1988-91 inclusive. Of the 27,554 babies weighing 500g or more, 106 (0.4%) were Born Before Arrival (BBA). BBA was associated was an increased perinatal mortality (p < 0.01) compared with hospital-born infants. Prematurity was the main contributing factor to the increased mortality. Analysis also revealed two distinct groups. The first was 14 women who had neither booked nor attended for antenatal care. Ten of these 14 were first time mothers, 13 were unmarried and 7 were under 21 [corrected] years of age. It is disturbing that in the 1990's young single expectant mothers fail to register for antenatal care. The second group was made up of 92 women booked for antenatal care: only 4 of these 92 were first-time mothers. Many of the multiparous women had a history of prelabour spontaneous rupture of the membranes but delayed coming into hospital. Improved antenatal education could potentially reduce the incidence of BBA and its adverse consequences.