The Effect of Maternal Age, Parity and Heamoglobin Level on Neonatal Birth Weight - A Fru Based Prevalence Study

Low birth weight has an adverse effect on the perinatal life and beyond. Several maternal factors contribute to the birth weight of a neonate. This prevalence study was undertaken to study how various factors modulates the birth weight. A community based cross sectional study on birth weight of newborns was conducted among pregnant women of an urban slum in Guwahati, Assam, India. Out of 378 pregnant women in the study group 200 primigravida and 178 multigravida in the age group of 18-37 yrs. Heamoglobin estimation was done by conventional method. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 11.5 software for windows. Data were analysed by Chi-square test. The results were considered as significant if P values were 0.05 or less. In the study, age and hemoglobin level is significant in relation to birth weight (p=.008, p=.005 respectively) but Parity of mother is not significant in relation to birth weight (p=.790). To find out the risk factor of Low Birth Weight the odds ratio has been calculated. It shows 1.15% more chances giving birth to babies having Low Birth Weight in Primipara than multipara.