Age - In this report, age refers to age in years as reported by the applicants on the Record of Marriage (State Form 27553). If a birthday occurs between submitting the application form and the marriage ceremony, age at the time of the actual marriage ceremony may be one year older than that reported on the license application form. The application form is valid for 90 days.

Age-specific Birth Rate - The number of live births for a specific age group for every 1,000 female population in that age group.

Birth Weight - The amount a liveborn infant weighs at birth.

Ceremony Type - Whether the ceremony was a civil ceremony or a religious ceremony is determined by the title and name of the officiating individual or the place the ceremony occurred. If the title reflects a government official, such as mayor, magistrate, or judge, the ceremony is categorized as civil. If the title reflects a religious entity, such as reverend, father, or priest, or the location of the marriage was a place of worship, the ceremony is categorized as religious.

Confidence Interval (CI) - An estimation of the variance around the point estimate (e.g., the relative risk). By itself, a point estimate is difficult to interpret because it does not indicate the extent to which chance may have played a role. To interpret the significance of a relative risk, if the value of 1.0 is inside the confidence interval range, the relative risk is not significant; if 1.0 is not included in the confidence interval range, the relative risk is statistically significant.

Crude Birth Rate - The number of live births per 1,000 population in a year.

Education Level - The education levels of the bride and groom reflect the highest grade completed as reported by the applicants on the Record of Marriage (State Form 27553).

First Trimester - The first three months of pregnancy.

General Fertility Rate (GFR) - The number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in a year.

Gestation – Weeks of pregnancy as reported on the terminated pregnancy report form.

Length of Gestation - The number of weeks since the last menstrual period began. In 1989, the "clinical estimate of gestation" was added to the birth certificate. In this report the clinical estimate is used to determine length of gestation rather than the date of the last normal menstrual cycle. When the clinical estimate is missing, the length of gestation is calculated from the date of the last normal menstrual cycle. The resulting value is substituted for the missing clinical estimate if the calculation produces a reasonable value.

Live Birth - A live birth is any infant who breathes or shows any other evidence of life (such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles) after separation from the mother's uterus, regardless of the duration of gestation.

Live Birth Order - The number of liveborn children including the current birth. In multiple deliveries, the live birth order increases sequentially with each child delivered.

Low Birth Weight (LBW) - Birth weight less than 2,500 grams (5 lb. 8 oz.).

Marriage Rates - Rates are expressed as the number of marriages per 1,000 population in specified age and/or marital status categories. Rates are provided for a number of different population bases to allow for comparisons with commonly used rates for the nation and other states. Population bases from the 1990 Census Modified Age Race Sex (MARS) counts were used in this report. Population estimates for more recent calendar years are not available by marital status.

Married – Includes currently married women and those who are separated but not divorced.

MARS - The Indiana population from 1990 census counts, modified by age, race, and sex.

Multiple Birth - The number of live births that resulted from multiple pregnancies (i.e., a twin, triplet, quadruplet, or quintuplet pregnancy) is reported in this document. Data presented in this report only indicate the number of births from the multiple pregnancy that were delivered alive, not the number of multiple pregnancies that occurred to Indiana women. Because some multiple pregnancies may result in both live births and stillborn fetuses, the total number of multiple births may not be an even multiple of the specified multiple pregnancy (e.g., an odd number of twins).

Multiple Birth Ratio - The number of live births in multiple deliveries divided by the total number of live births times 1,000.

Neonatal - The first 28 days of an infant's live.

Not Married – Includes women who were never married, and those who are divorced or widowed.

Place of Occurrence - By convention marriages are tabulated by place of occurrence (county and state) rather than place of residence as in other vital events (births, deaths, etc.). This is primarily because marriages involve two individuals who may have different places of residence.

Preterm Birth - Delivery of a liveborn infant prior to 37 weeks gestation.

Previous Marital Status - Marital status prior to the marriage is reported for both the bride and the groom. Individuals are categorized as never married, or if previously married, by how the last marriage ended (death, divorce or annulment). The number of previous marriages is also reported. In the tables in this report, annulments are included in the category labeled divorced.

Previous Terminated Pregnancies – The number of previous terminations as reported on the terminated pregnancy report form. The current termination is not included.

Primary Cesarean - A woman's first cesarean delivery.

Proportion - The number of occurrences (e.g., births) in a certain group divided by the total occurrences during the same time period; a proportion can also be considered a percentage.

Resident Birth - The birth of an infant whose mother's usual residence is in Indiana, regardless of where the birth occurred (inside Indiana or elsewhere).

Race - Race of the mother or father. In this report, race is categorized as "white", "black", "other", and "total", where "other" means all other races besides white and black, including unknown, and "total" represents all races combined. In Indiana, "Hispanic" is classified as an individual's ethnicity, not his or her race; all Hispanics are classified as either "white Hispanic", "black Hispanic", or "other Hispanic". Because they are so few in number, characteristics of births to Hispanic women are not examined in this report.

Ratio – The number of terminations per 1,000 live births. The ratio can be for all women, or by age, race or marital status, depending on the table.

Repeat Cesarean - A second or higher occurrence of a cesarean section to any individual woman.

Relative Risk (RR) - The relative risk is a calculation that measures the association between exposure to a particular factor and the risk of a certain outcome. It is calculated by dividing the incidence rate among the exposed group (e.g., low birth weight births) by the incidence rate among the nonexposed group (e.g., non-low birth weight babies).

Reliability of Ratios – Some of the ratios shown in this report are based on a small number of live births by age, race or marital status. The ratios based on small numbers are unstable. Ratios based on less than 20 live births for women in particular age groups or marital status groups are not reported.

Sex Ratio - The number of male infants born in a year for every 1,000 female infants.

Stable Rate - A rate containing a minimum of 20 occurrences or events (e.g., births) per unit being examined (e.g., city, county, and rate).

Stable Proportion - A percent containing a minimum of 4 occurrences or events (e.g., number of LBW births) in the numerator and 20 events in the denominator (e.g., number of total births).

Teen Mother - A female between the ages of 10 to 19 years.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) - The number of births that 1,000 women would have if the current year's age-specific birth rate remained constant throughout their childbearing years.

Unmarried - This category includes the never married, the widowed, and the divorced.

Unmarried Parents - At the time of delivery, the mother was not married to her infant's father. This was formerly termed "out-of-wedlock".

VBAC - Vaginal birth after a previous cesarean section.

VBAC Rate - Of all women who had a previous birth by cesarean section, the proportion who delivered this birth vaginally. See also the Technical Notes in Appendix B.

Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) - Birth weight less than 1,500 grams (3 lb. 5 oz.).

Vital Statistics - Information obtained from official documents filed with the Indiana State Department of Health, to include certificates of birth, death, marriage, and terminated pregnancy.

Women of Childbearing Age - By historical convention, women between the ages of 15 and 44 are generally considered women of childbearing age; these inclusive ages are used to calculate the General Fertility Rate.

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