Around one in nine babies require some form of specialist hospital care when they are first born. Some of these are born premature and some are born at term, but with conditions that mean they require specialist care. In total this equates to around 80,000 babies every year, or around one every six minutes.

See the sections below for more information on the following subjects

Premature babies - definitions and statistics

Low birthweight babies - definitions and statistics

Neonatal units and standards

Infant mortality - definitions and statistics

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