[Gestational age related correction of birth weight by parity. Body height and weight of the mother].

Abstract

Corrections to the real birthweight of infants are proposed from the 28th to 42nd week of pregnancy. These take account of the influence of parity and maternal height and weight. The effect of these three characteristics on the birthweight is calculated both one and two dimensionally by combining the characteristics with the actual duration of pregnancy. Thus, for example, after 40 full weeks of pregnancy 560g of the birthweight would be considered the weight correction. For newborn infants of relatively short light-weight mothers, this account should be added to the real birthweight ascertained, and for the babies of relatively tall, heavy mothers it would be subtracted. Only after this correction can the two dimensional classification of neonates into hypotrophic, eutrophic or hypertrophic take place according to birthweight and duration of gestation.