Maternal birth weight and subsequent pregnancy outcome

Abstract

The relationship between maternal birth weight and future reproductive outcome was studied in a cohort of 748 white women with singleton pregnancies. Maternal birth weight was significantly related to stature, prepregnancy weight, pregnancy weight gain, baby's birth weight, gestational duration, relative intrauterine growth, the baby's need for neonatal intensive care, transient tachypnea of the newborn, and idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome. Mothers who weighted 2,000 g or less at birth were at elevated risk for poor pregnancy outcome, although their babies were not smaller than babies of most groups of mothers who weighed more at birth. This suggests that factors interfering with intrauterine growth have an impact on the next generation of babies. In view of the increasing survival of low-birth-weight babies, this possibility bears further investigation.

The role of marriage in the causal pathway from economic conditions early in life to mortality

“…The latter is a potentially deadly condition. Hackman et al (1983) find an inverse association between the mother's birth weight and the baby's need for intensive care. See also the surveys by Lummaa (2003) and Sloboda et al (2011).…”

Intergenerational effects of birth weight on glucose tolerance and reproductive performance

“…development, may influence her later reproductive performance (Hackman et al, 1983;Emanuel, 1986). Indeed, one British study demonstrated that a mother's own birth weight (which is an indicator of her own intrauterine growth and development) may be of paramount importance in determining her own babies' development in utero (Ounsted and Ounsted, 1966).…”

“…Studies have shown that birth weights of mothers are related to those of their own children and even their children's children (Hackman et al, 1983;Klebanoff et al, 1984). Women who were themselves small-for-gestational age (SGA) are twice at risk of having an SGA baby themselves (Klebanoff et al, 1989;Skjaerven et al, 1997) as well as being at a greater risk of developing adulthood diseases such as noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and hypertension (Phillips, 1996 and1998).…”

Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

“…Due to the legal and ethical restrictions on the use of human subjects in scientific research, empirical evidence on the relationship between prenatal malnutrition and subsequent reproductive function has mainly been derived from observational studies. A number of such studies showed that women's prenatal conditions, as measured by their birth weight, are negatively associated with their subsequent risk of foetal loss and preterm birth, and positively associated with babies' birth weight and chance of survival (Emanuel et al 1992;Hackman et al 1983;Klebanoff, Meirik, and Berendes 1989;Little 1987;Sanderson, Emanuel, and Holt 1995;Skjaerven, Wilcox, and Magnus 1997). However, due to the weaknesses of observational design, the causal nature of these findings remains unclear.…”