Alleghany Memorial Hospital births were up 16 percent in 2002

A record number of babies were born at Alleghany Memorial Hospital last year.

According to figures provided by the hospital, a total of 67 births — 36 boys and 31 girls — were recorded there during 2002. That figure represents a 16 percent increase over 2001, when 58 babies were born at AMH.

There were 60 births recorded in 2000 and 56 in 1999. The 67 births translates to an average of about one birth every 5.4 days. The annual total was easily the highest of any of the last 10 years (1993 is the earliest year for which figures are readily available). March 2002 also set a record among months.

With 10 births, it is the only month double-digit births are on record. The former record was shared by several months, most recently October 2001, with nine births. The 10 babies born at AMH last March included seven boys, likely a record by gender in a month as well. The most girls born in any month was four; that happened in June, September and November.

The low month for childbirths last year was December, when two babies, both girls, were born. That was twice as many births as the low month for 2001, when only one birth occurred in January.

The hospital has not had a month with zero births since May 1998. Last July saw only the second set of twins born at AMH in the last 20 years. The increase last year continued an overall upward trend. AMH delivered 42 babies in 1993; the annual figure ranged through the 30s for the rest of the mid 1990s.

The big jump was from 29 births in 1998 to 56 in 1999, when the hospital added epidural pain management and routine cesarean sections. Numbers of babies born in 2002 at AMH, listed by months, were: