This paper explores how observed and unobserved parental investments compensate for low birth weight. Controlling for family fixed effects, which encompass unobserved parental investment, we find birth weight positively correlates with math and reading scores and these estimates are considerably larger in magnitude than estimates derived from models that do not control for family fixed effects....

The frequency of spontaneous premature rupture of membranes (PROM) was determined in the pregnancies of 1,848 white mothers and their singleton infants, born at the University of Kansas Medical Center between April 1975 and April 1978. The frequency of PROM increased significantly from a low of 34/707 (4.8 percent) among low-risk mothers, to 40/444 (9.0 percent) among mothers smoking one to 60 ...

CONTEXT Both high- and low-dose radiation exposures in women have been associated with low-birth-weight offspring. It is unclear if radiation affects the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis and thereby indirectly birth weight, or if the radiation directly affects the reproductive organs. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether antepartum dental radiography is associated with low-birth-weight offspri...

background: the timing of maternal weight change in pregnancy may be an important determinant of birth weight. the objective of this study was to measure weight gain patterns from early pregnancy until delivery, and to examine the relationship between prenatal weight gain and low birth weight.   methods: a total of 500 pregnant women within 15-20 days of conception, with confirmed pregnancies a...

The recent trends of declining birth weight in the United States are alarming policy makers as well as medical professionals. The trends are puzzling since most factors affecting birth weight have changed in favor of increasing it. We find that the changes in the use of labor induction and Cesarean section explain not only the trends of declining birth weight from 1989 to the mid-2000s, but als...

To determine whether the use of video display terminals (VDTs) is associated with an increased risk of reduced birthweight (RBW) and preterm birth, a cohort of telephone operators who used VDTs at work was compared to a cohort of non-VDT-users. Among 2,430 women interviewed, 713 eligible singleton live births were reported. Exposure was estimated from company records and a representative sample...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of psychologic support against preterm delivery in pregnant women with symptoms of preterm labor. STUDY DESIGN The study, which involved two cohorts of women identified during two successive periods in the same maternity ward, included 309 women in the experimental group and 323 in the control group. The women in the control grou...

conclusions overall, incidence of birth trauma in kashan city was lower in comparison with most studies. considering existing risk factors, further monitoring on labor, and delivery management in teaching hospitals are recommended to prevent birth injuries. in addition, careful supervision on students and residents' training should be applied in teaching hospitals. patients and methods in this ...