A nomogram for screening low birth weight and large for gestational age babies for use in primary health care centres

In this prospective study, maternal weights per gestational age were recorded on 600 randomly selected gravid women attending regular antenatal clinics until delivery of their babies. This paper explains how the knowledge of these weights were used to produce a pregnancy nomogram for prenatally screening mothers who are likely to deliver term (37-41 weeks). Low birth weight (< or = 2500g) and large for gestational age (> or = 3800g) babies in the community. The nomogram gave a sensitivity of 80.1%, a specificity of 97.9%; a predictive value of a positive test of 87.9% and a predictive value of a negative test of 96.3%. The lower cadre workers were able to successfully utilize the nomogram.