One in 13 babies is premature, new figures reveal

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) report relates to live births of babies born before 37 weeks gestation.

In all, 6 per cent of single births and 53 per cent of multiple births in 2005 were premature.

In that year, there were about 627,000 singleton live births and about 19,000 multiple live births in England and Wales.

The figures also showed that 89 per cent of singleton and 47 per cent of multiple live births were born at term (37 to 41 weeks gestation).

One in 20 single birth babies were born after their due date (42 weeks and over).

Of those born before 28 weeks, 94 per cent had very low birth weight (less than 1,500 grams).

But among those born at term, fewer than 1 per cent were very low birth weight.

In 2005, 279 singleton live births (0.04 per cent) and 51 multiple live births (0.3 per cent) were born before 22 weeks.