2% of women, and this percentage has been rising. Of the children born before 34 weeks, 51.8% had corticosteroid therapy in 2003 and 54.3% in 2010 (NS). Repeated corticosteroid Dorsomorphin solubility dmso courses, on the other hand, became less frequent in 2010; this change affected especially prescription of two courses, since three or more were rare in 2003 as in 2010. Deliveries took place more often in the public sector and in

very large maternity units (Table 6). The proportion of deliveries in maternity units with 2000 or more annual deliveries rose from 15.9% in 1995 to 48.0% in 2010. The distribution of the different modes of labour onset has changed since 1998: caesareans before labour increased from 1998 to 2003, and inductions of labour from 2003 to 2010. Overall, caesareans increased regularly over time, but this trend was moderate from

2003 to 2010, and not significant if we limit the comparison to overall caesarean rates rather than more detailed mode of delivery. Episiotomies became much less frequent, see more dropping from 50.9% in 1998 to 26.8% in 2010 among all women with vaginal deliveries. Use of epidural or spinal anaesthesia grew progressively (81.4% of women in 2010); on the other hand, the percentage of general anaesthesia fell from 5.4% in 1995 to 1.2% in 2010. The distribution of birth weight did not change between 1995 and 2010, but mean weight increased from 3231 g (± 584) in 2003 to 3254 g (± 568) in 2010 (Table 7). Five-minute Apgar scores did not change significantly between 1995 and 2003, but scores below 10 increased slightly in 2010. Between 2003 and 2010, transfers to neonatal unit or monitoring in a special care section of the maternity unit fell slightly, although they had previously been stable. In particular, postnatal transfers to another site have fallen regularly since 1995, from 2.8% to 1.0%. Breast-feeding, which had risen strongly from 1998 to 2003, continued to increase; 68.7% of women breast-fed their babies either exclusively or partially in 2010. The Thymidylate synthase rates of preterm deliveries and low-birth-weight and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborns varied strongly according to the

population in which they were calculated (Table 8). The preterm birth rate in 2010 ranged from 6.6% among all live births to 5.5% among singletons; similarly, the rate of neonates weighing less than 2500 grams was 6.4 and 5.1% in these two populations. This is explained by the fact that 19% of preterm infants and 23% of low-birth-weight infants were twins. The rates of preterm, low-birth-weight and SGA newborns followed different trends. Among all infants, as among the singletons, preterm births increased regularly, slightly but significantly over the entire period (p < 0.001). Among all infants, as among singletons, the proportion of low-birth-weight and SGA babies increased continuously through 2003 (trend tests p < 0.001 for both indicators in both populations) and then fell significantly in most groups.