State of South Dakota's child 2009, part 2: multiple births.

Currently in South Dakota, multiples comprise between three and four percent of all births and are increasingly contributing to annual cohorts of newborns. In recent years, multiples contribute to between 20 and 30 percent of all low-birth-weight newborns. In 2008, almost 35 percent of all very low-birth-weight infants were multiples. Over the past ten years, multiples contributed 10 percent of all infant deaths. Nationally, 15 percent of all infants who die were the outcome of a multiple gestation.