Instruction Manual Part 3a
Classification and Coding Instructions for Live Birth Records

The purpose of this manual is to document the specifications for
coding and key entry of statistical items that will be
tabulated from the birth certificate by the National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS).  Primarily, these specifications are
used by the 54 registration areas of the United States that
submit data to NCHS in electronic form through the Vital Statistics
Cooperative Program (VSCP).  Under the terms of the VSCP contracts
with NCHS, the registration area must incorporate NCHS specifications
into their own procedures so that the resultant data files meet the
needs of both NCHS and the registration area.

The manual is in Wordperfect 7 format (161 KB uncompressed and
42 KB bytes compressed, 3amanual.zip) and ASCII (3amanual.txt).  
In the future, a pdf version may also be provided.

Questions and comments regarding the format of these files should
be addressed to Donna Hoyert, Room 820, MSB/NCHS, 6525 Belcrest Road,
Hyattsville, MD 20782.  Questions about the content of the manual
should be directed to the Data Acquisition and Evaluation Branch,
NCHS, P.O. Box 12214, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709.

This material is provided by NCHS which is a subunit of CDC/ATSDR.
It has been cleared for public distribution by CDC/ATSDR and will be
authentic if gotten from ftp://ftp.cdc.gov.  CDC/ATSDR takes all
effort to assure the authenicity of electronically distributed
documents.  However, in all instances where the electronic and official
agency record differ, the authenicity of the official agency record
is controlling.