Relationship among Maternal Height, Pre-Pregnancy Nutritional Status and Birth Weight of Neonates in Dhaka City

Birth weight is the body weight of a baby at its birth. There have been numerous studies that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to show links between birth weight and laterlife conditions, including diabetes, obesity, tobacco smoking and intelligence. A baby born small or large for gestational age (either of the two extremes) is thought to have an increased risk of different complications in later life. Low birth weight (LBW) is a major public health problem. Globally, approximately 16% of infants are born weighing less than 2500 g, which represents more than 22 million LBW babies per year [1]. Over 95% of these infants are born in low-income and middle-income countries. In South Asia, about one quarter (28%) of all infants is born with LBW. In sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America/Caribbean, the LBW rates are estimated to be 13% and 9%, respectively [1]. The WHO defines LBW as weight at birth less than 2500 g irrespective of the gestational age of the infant [2]. LBW includes very low birth weight (VLBW; less than 1500 g) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW; less than 1000 g) infants, who have the highest risk of adverse outcomes [2,3]. These LBW infants are at a higher risk of mortality, morbidity, poor growth, impaired psychomotor and cognitive development as immediate outcomes, and have a greater susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease in future. Maternal malnutrition prior to and during pregnancy manifested by low bodyweight, short stature, inadequate energy intake during pregnancy and coexisting micronutrient deficiency are considered major determinants in developing countries where the burden is too high. Studies have found that LBW babies are about 20 times more likely to die in infancy compared to normal birth weight (NBW) babies, and those who survive, share a greater burden of various physical and psychological complications, such as behavioral and cognitive disorders [4]. The resulting health-care expenditures are also higher for the surviving LBW babies [5]. Furthermore, with the demographic change of increased life expectancy at birth in developing countries, children born with LBW can cause an increased economic burden and an increased disease burden [6,7]. In addition, LBW is considered as a universal threat for developing countries that creates a barrier for child development [8,9]. Other studies have shown several factors to be determinants of LBW and have demonstrated that preventing those factors can help reduce early childhood morbidity and mortality [10]. The determinants of LBW are genetic, constitutional, obstetric, nutritional, related to maternal morbidities in the antenatal Volume 8 Issue 2 2018