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 increased maternal birth weight and delivery of a mascrosomic (greater than 4000 gram) infant. Compared to mothers who weighed 8 pounds or more at birth, mothers who weighed 6 to 7.9 pounds were only half as likely, and mothers who weighed 4-5.9 pounds were 15 percent as likely to give birth to a macrosomic infant. In order to further investigate the specific effect of maternal birth weight on disproportionate fetal growth, other fetal growth parameters were studied, using data from the Collaborative Perinatal Project. Infants of low birth weight mothers were shorter than infants of larger mothers, but were normally proportioned. In a related study, birth certificates of infants born in Tennessee between 1979 and 1984 were matched with those of their mothers, who were born in Tennessee between 1959 and 1966. The association between maternal and infant birth weight was confirmed. In addition, it was shown that low maternal birth weight carried a greater risk for the delivery of a small for gestational age infant than for a preterm one. An ongoing study involves abstraction of the birth records of a sample of women born in a region of Sweden during the 1950's. The reproductive histories of these women will be traced through the birth registry. Finally, review of proposals occurred in June 4-5, 1986 for a contract involving the establishment and follow-up of a cohort of women whose own intrauterine and perinatal experience has been previously documented. Reproductive outcome of these women will then be determined.