Estimation of the "normal" growth of Swedish infants at term. Preliminary report

Using the Swedish Medical Birth Registry for 1983 the birthweights were studied from the 38th to the 42nd week of gestation. Several criteria were used in order to retain a "normal" population of infants without signs of pathology. The mothers all negated smoking. Of about 93 000 livebirths roughly 10% fulfilled the criteria. Both in the infants who were the first-born child (n = 5.640) and in those who were the second-born child (n = 3.599) there was a successively higher mean birthweight for each completed week until 41 weeks. After that a graph connecting the mean values showed a significant flattening.