Perinatal health surveillance in Bulgaria

Data sources:

Data collection, processing and publication of health demographics in Bulgaria is carried out by the National Statistics Institute in compliance with the Law on Statistics of Bulgaria, Regulations of the European Parliament and the Council on European statistics, Civil Registration Act, regulations of the Ministry of Health and other legal documents .

The National Center for Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA) is  a structure within the national healthcare system which carries out activities for protecting public health, promoting health and preventing diseases, providing information for healthcare management. NCPHA compiles perinatal health indicators including: infant and perinatal mortality, fertility, and others.

NCPHA information from the "Certificate of Death" and "Certificate of Perinatal Death" can be processed according to different criteria - birth weight, gender, gestational age, cause of death, type of pregnancy / singleton or multiple / data mother - age, citizenship, previous pregnancy rates and more.

"Birth Report" Data are available by sex, weight, height, child birth order, assistance at birth, age of parents, citizenship of the mother and father and others.

Bulgarian perinatal health indicators in 2013, 2014, 2015:

INDICATORS	2013	2014	2015
Birth rate	9,2 ‰	9,4 ‰	9,2 ‰
Infant Mortality	7,3 ‰	7,6 ‰	6,6 ‰
Perinatal Mortality	10,3 ‰	10,4 ‰	9,1 ‰

Data for the last three years show that infant and perinatal mortality decreased, while the birth rate remained relatively stable.

National perinatal health initiatives:

Bulgaria has adopted a National Programme for improving maternal and child health, which is part of the National Health Strategy (2014-2020). This program is synchronized with the European Strategy for Child Health and integrates the seven priority areas for action in terms of Europe - the health of the mother and newborn, nutrition, infectious diseases, injuries and violence, physical environment, health of adolescent psychosocial development and mental health.

NCPHA participate in the implementation of the program with representation in the National Coordination Council for Maternal and Child Health, which coordinate the activities and supervision of enforcement.

For more information, please contact:

Title: Mrs Rumyana Kolarova (Euro-Peristat SC member for Bulgaria)
Current position : Chief expert, head of section “Registers”, Department of ”National health data and eHealth”
Institution: National Center for Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA)
Postal address: Bulgaria, 1431 Sofia, bul. “Akad. Ivan Evstatiev Geshov” 15