The article presents a short review of already established birth registries worldwide and their value for public health and perinatal medicine. Implementation of Arkhangelsk County Birth Registry (ACBR) is presented in detail. Paper registration form contains information on maternal pre-pregnancy and pregnancy health status, reproductive history, data on folic acid and multivitamin intake as well as alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking before and during pregnancy. Pregnancy outcomes with data on babies' anthropometry and Apgar score are also recorded. For sick liveborn infants, diagnosis and provided treatment are specified. Practical issues of ACBR implementation including the process of transferring data from registration paper forms to computer database are described. From January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014, 43 327 births were recorded in the ACBR. It comprises 99.6 % of all stillborn and liveborn infants with gestational age 22 and more weeks born in Arkhangelsk County in 2012-2014. Four hundred ninety four births (1.1 %) are multiple. In 2013 and 2014, quality controls demonstrated that 97.3% records in computer database are identical to data in paper registration forms. Ethical and legal issues are discussed. All records in the ACBR are depersonalized. Some practical issues as well as future perspectives of the ACBR for cohort and cross-sectional studies in a field of perinatal epidemiology are also discussed.

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