Relative effect of parental birth weight on infant birth weight at term

The relations between some hereditary and environmental factors and the variation in infant birth weight were estimated by multiple linear regression analyses on a sample of 276 Scandinavian single term pregnancies. Gestational age explained 10.9%, fetal factors (maternal and paternal birth weights and fetal sex) 7.9%, maternal factors (parity, pre-pregnancy weight and height) 5.5% and external factors (adjusted weight gain and smoking) 5.8% of the variation in infant birth weight. It is concluded that maternal and paternal birth weights are rather poor predictors of infant birth weight. Together they explain only 5.6% of the variation in infant birth weight at term.