LOW BIRTH WEIGHT ACROSS GENERATIONS

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The original description of the association of maternal and infant birth weights was followed by the description of the association between large maternal birth weight and delivery of a macrosomic (>4000 gram) infant. Study of other fetal growth parameters, including length and head circumference, demonstrated that infants of low birth weight mothers were both shorter and lighter than infants of larger mothers, but that the infants were normally proportioned. In related studies, birth certificates of infants born in Tennessee between 1979 to 1984 were matched with those of their mothers, who were born in Tennessee between 1959 to 1966. Maternal and infant birth weights were again shown to be correlated. In addition, women who were themselves of low birth weight were up to 4 times as likely to have a small for gestational age infant as were women weighing 4000-4499 grams, but the low birth weight women were less than twice as likely to have a preterm infant. A group of Swedish women, born from 1955 to 1965, was studied. Women themselves smaller gestational age at birth were at increased risk of giving birth to both small for gestational age and preterm infants. Women who were preterm at birth were not at increased risk of either outcome. Follow-up of girls who were born in the 1960's as subjects in the Collaborative Perinatal Project and Danish Perinatal Study is currently underway in order to examine their reproductive histories. Small for gestational age, preterm and control girls have been located and interviewed. Hospital records of their confinements have also been retrieved.