An Overview of the Role of Effective Maternal Indicators on Birth Weight

Background & Aims of the Study: Birth weight is one of the most fundamental and common health indicators used to assess the infants' status in each country. Maternal blood and its various cell types and parameters are of vital factors have impression on the fetus. Several risk factors are considered as the causes of low birth weight; however, in many cases it has no obvious reason. This study aims at reviewing the role of effective maternal indicators on birth weight. This research is of overview type designed using 19 papers collected from academic databases and search engines such as Pubmed, Proquest, Elsevier, Scopus. Papers were selected by cross-sectional and cohort designs, clinical trials, and systematic reviews. Papers were also searched in Persian databases, such as Iranmedex, Medlib, as well as scientific journals websites. Evaluation of various maternal parameters such as hematocrit, body mass index, hemoglobin, blood lead, and zinc and iron levels showed direct and meaningful relationship between child weight and maternal hematocrit, hemoglobin, and body mass index. Moreover, there exists an inverse relationship between child weight and maternal iron while it is noteworthy that there is no relationship between maternal blood lead level and child weight. At the end, it can be stated that many of the maternal parameters have adverse effects on the fetus; however, some of them has not been confirmed everywhere. Perhaps the reason for this difference in results comes from differences in race, geography, lifestyle, laboratory practices and etc. Thus, it is recommended that further studies be conducted in any region to determine the effect of each of these parameters.