We read your Series on preterm birth, especially the paper on mortality and sequelae of preterm birth (Jan 19, p 261), with interest, since statistics on preterm birth and gestation-specific infant mortality have recently become available for the first time for England and Wales as a whole. These data relate to all 645 887 live-births that occurred in England and Wales in 2005. They are therefore a valuable addition to the UK data presented in table 1 in the paper by Saroj Saigal and Lex Doyle because they are based on larger numbers of very preterm births and relate to the whole population.
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