[Gestational age and birth weight. 1. Intrauterine growth curves]

Intrauterine growth curves for male and female newborns from the completed 23. to the 42. week of gestation were calculated and drawn using an obstetrical data bank containing data of 17893 neonates. The influence of parity on intrauterine growth was studied and documented. Clinically important weight-centiles were computed and tabulated for both sexes independently and for all neonates on the basis of mean-values and standard deviations of the birth weights, that were predominantly Gaussian-distributed. The statistical consequences of this observation are discussed. The implications of "smoothing-procedures" of weight centiles are outlined.