LOW BIRTH WEIGHT OF BORN BABIES

LOW BIRTH WEIGHT 

The birth weight of babies born to well nourished mothers is usually about 3.5 kg. But the average birth weight of Indian babies is 2.7 to 2.9 kg. It’s very important to record the weight of the baby within one hour of birth. It determines the growth and chances of survival of the baby.

The low birth weight internationally has been defined as a birth weight of less than 2.5 kg (up to and including 2.499 kg) the measurement being taken preferably within the first hour of life, before significant post-natal loss has occurred. The baby may be born full term or pre term. There are two types of low birth weight babies.

  1. Pre- term babies - Those babies who are born prematurely or before time i.e. 37 weeks of gestation. Their intrauterine growth may be normal i.e. their weight, length and development may be within normal and development within 2 to 3 years of age with proper care during neonatal period and care thereafter. In developed countries, most of the low birth babies are preterm babies. The pre-term deliveries are often due to multiple pregnancy, severe infections, toxemia, teenage pregnancy, hard physical work etc and in many cases the cause may not be known.
  2. Small for date (SFD) - Those babies may be born at term or pre-term. Their weight is less than 10th percentile of the gestational age. They are due to related foetal growth. The majority of the low birth weight babies in developing countries are small for date. There are many factors, which are associated with this category of LBW babies. These include in relation to mother, foetus and placenta. Mother related factors are malnutrition, severe anaemia, very young age, short stature, multipara (mother had many earlier pregnancies), close birth spacing hypertension, toxemia, and malaria. Most of these causes are associated with low social-economic and education status of women and people at large. The foetus related factors are: multiple gestation(twins or triplets), intrauterine infections, foetal abnormalities and chromosomal abnormality. The placental related factors include placental abnormalities and insufficiency.

CHILD HEALTH CARE

Child health care refers to care of children from conception to birth and after birth till the age of five. After the age of five, the child’s health is taken care by school health programmer team. Health workers working for MCH services may or may not be the part of school health team.
The health of the child, in fact starts with the birth of girl child who is the future mother of the child. Child health care services include health care of the fetus before birth (ante-natal pediatrics), health care of neonates from birth to 28 days, care of infants from one month to 12 months, care of toddlers from one year to two years and care of pre-school child from two years of age. The objectives of child health services are to ensure that:
  • Every child receives adequate care and proper nourishment.
  • Their growth and development is monitored and any deviation is identified and treated on time.
  • Ailments are detected and treated without any delay to prevent it from getting worse.
  • Trained persons render care.
  • Mothers and family members are educated and trained to give proper care to their children to promote their health.
                                                 
DR NITIN GUPTA
BEST PEDIATRICIAN IN GAUR CITY, GREATER NOIDA WEST 

    http://drnitin.drsuchiguptagynaeclinic.com/


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