Comparison of the number of live births, maternal age at childbirth, and weight of live births between Korean women and immigrant women in 2018

PURPOSE: This study compared maternal age at childbirth, the number of live births, and the weight of live births between Korean women and immigrant women using statistical data from the Republic of Korea for the period of 2008-2018. METHODS: The analysis was conducted using data from the Microdata Integrated Service of Statistics Korea (https://mdis.kostat.go.kr/index.do). RESULTS: Korean women and immigrant women showed a higher age at childbirth in 2018 than in 2008. The percentage of newborns of Korean women with a birth weight of less than 2.5 kg increased slightly for 3 consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, whereas for immigrant women, this percentage increased in 2017 compared to 2016 and then decreased again in 2018. Very low birth weight (less than 1.5 kg) became more common among immigrant women from 2016 to 2018. Birth at a gestational age of fewer than 37 weeks increased both among Korean and immigrant women from 2016 to 2018. In both groups, the percentage of women who had their first child within their first 2 years of marriage decreased from 2008 to 2018. CONCLUSION: Immigrant women had higher birth rates than Korean women, while both groups showed an increasing trend in preterm birth. Greater attention should be paid to the pregnancy and birth needs of immigrant women, and steps are needed to ensure health equity and access in order to prevent preterm births. It is also necessary to identify factors that affect preterm birth and birth of very low birth weight infants among immigrant women in the future.