Where did preterm birth happen?

Data source:

• California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Vital Record Business Information System (VRBIS).  VRBIS data include one birth certificate record for each and every baby born in California.   
• Data were analyzed by the San Francisco (SF) Department of Public Health Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Epidemiology Section.  

Data notes:

• Abbreviations:  Black/AA: Black or African American, CPMC: California Pacific Medical Center; UCSF: University of California San Francisco; ZSFG: Zuckerberg San Francisco General. 
• Race and ethnicity were self-reported by the parent(s) and grouped by the California Department of Public Health, which separates multi-race Hispanic and single race Hispanic groups. 
• Quality of prenatal care was checked using the Kotelchuck index 
• Within two weeks of every live birth, birth clerks at the hospital or midwives in the community record details about the birth. The birth record includes information about problems the birthing parent faced during pregnancy and the services they received.

Data limitations:

• Data are not shown if the number of preterm births in the group is less than 20 to protect the privacy of individual people in the group. For small groups, please see the days of pregnancy lost because of preterm birth for the group.
• The numbers shown here may undercount the true number of preterm births.
• We do not count babies delivered in San Francisco by people who are not San Francisco residents. 
• We do not count preterm births delivered by San Francisco residents outside of California, in other states or countries. 
• Housing information was only available for 2019-2021.
• The birth record notes if the birthing parent was ever diagnosed by a doctor with health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, or infection before or during pregnancy.  The birth record data may be incomplete because of health conditions that were not diagnosed.