Maternal height and shoe size as predictors of pelvic disproportion: an assessment

Abstract

A total of 351 women who gave birth in the Paddington and North Kensington Health District were studied in order to establish a factual basis for recording height and shoe size as indicators of pelvic adequacy. Because only 19 women had radiological pelvimetry assessment, type of delivery and length of labour were used as proxy measures of disproportion. Of the 57 women with a shoe size <4;, 21% were delivered by caesarean section compared with 10% of the group with shoe size between 4; and 6 and only 1% of the group with shoe size 36;. Similar relations with height were not generally found. The data were further examined using logistic regression models of the expected percentages of mothers having an adverse delivery. The models confirmed and extended the more simple analysis.

Maternal Shoe Size and Infant Birth Weight: Correlation or Fiction?

“…Ours is the first study to specifically examine a potential correlation between shoe size and infant birth weight. In an anthropometric study of European primigravidas, Mahmood 4 reported that heavier babies were more likely to be delivered by cesarean section, but found no correlation with infant weight and maternal height or shoe size.…”

“…For example, a woman with a prepregnancy shoe size of 7 will deliver a 7-pound baby. Although several studies have examined the relationship between shoe size and mode of delivery, [1][2][3][4] a focused review of the English-speaking literature reveals no prior studies specifically investigating a relationship between maternal shoe size and birth weight.The objective of the present investigation was to determine the scientific validity of the relationship between maternal prepregnancy shoe size and subsequent infant birth weight using an unselected prospective cohort of parturients. Our null hypothesis was that there is no correlation between maternal shoe size and birth weight.…”

“…For example, a woman with a prepregnancy shoe size of 7 will deliver a 7-pound baby. Although several studies have examined the relationship between shoe size and mode of delivery, [1][2][3][4] a focused review of the English-speaking literature reveals no prior studies specifically investigating a relationship between maternal shoe size and birth weight.…”

The value of maternal height as a risk factor of dystocia: a meta‐analysis

“…Studies of fewer than 5 0 0 births (Frame et al 1985;Haddad et al 1986;Hughes et al 1987;Kennedy & Greenwald 1988), as reliability of the quantitative analysis would have been reduced; case studies (Kappel et al 1987;Liljestrand et al 1985;Scotte et al 1989), since this type of investigation is not appropriate to evaluate the real incidence of Caesarean sections in the target population; cases in which the number of women of small stature was deliberately inflated (Camilleri 198 I; Harrison et al 1985 Maternal height as a risk factor for dystocia the aims of this meta-analysis was to determine the sensitivities (Se) and specificities (Sp) associated with various decision thresholds, we had to have various cut-off points on a given curve; studies using data from another study (Baird 1985); studies in which the dependent variable was poorly defined (Cox 1963 Voorhoeve et al 1984) and hospital studies carried out in areas where the overwhelming majority of births take place in hospitals (Mahmood et al 1981;Yudkin & Redman 1986; Thomson & Hanley 1988). Group b consisted of studies with a stronger selection bias: they were conducted in referral hospitals to which a large number of the district's at-risk deliveries were referred (Aitken & Walls 1986;Everett 1975;Sokal et al 1991;Family Health International 1988).…”

An observational study of the relationship between lumbar epidural space depth and body mass index in Michigan parturients

“…1 In a study of obesity and gestational diabetes among African-American women and Latinas in a large Detroit, Michigan health system, Kieffer et al showed that almost 47% of AfricanAmerican women and 37% of Latinas were overweight or obese with more than 53% of African-American women and 38% of Latinas gaining excessive weight during their pregnancies. 2 Previous studies have demonstrated a relationship between weight, 4-8 ponderal index (weight-to-height ratio), 3,4 shoe size, 4 (an obstetric estimation of pelvic outlet size 5 ) and body mass index (BMI) 6,7 with depth from the skin to the lumbar epidural space in parturients. However, none of these studies present a large, exclusively United States (US) population.…”