Maternal shoe size and infant birth weight: correlation or fiction?

OBJECTIVE To determine whether maternal prepregnancy shoe size can be used to reliably predict infant birth weight. METHOD This is a cross-sectional study of 111 consecutive patients admitted to the maternity care unit of a small community hospital. Data collected included prepregnancy height, maternal weight, maternal shoe size, maternal age, gravidity, parity, ethnicity, and method of delivery. Infant birth weight was recorded within the first 2 hours of life. RESULTS There was no correlation between maternal shoe size and birth weight (r = 0.01; P = NS). There was no correlation between shoe size and birth weight when corrected for parity and ethnicity. CONCLUSION There is no correlation between maternal shoe and infant birth weight. This anthropometric measure should not be used to estimate infant birth weight.