The Relationship Between Neonates Low Birth Weight (LBW) and Maternal Age and Weight in Varanasi, India

The aim of the study was to see the relationship between low birth weight and maternal age and weight. In total 200 pregnant women with less than 12 weeks gestation were registered from government hospitals in Varanasi and followed up. After excluding multiple and still births, normal birth weight and complicated pregnancies only LBW baby and maternal pairs were studied. At the time of registration maternal age was interviewed and weight were recorded with the help of bathroom scale. Product moment coefficient was computed to enumerate the correlation between (I) Weight and LBW, (II), Age and LBW. The 't' test was applied to see the significance of mean difference of LBW of different maternal age groups. Out of 200 pregnant women, only 29.55% delivered low birth weight babies. Significant positive correlation was found between low birth weight and maternal weight whereas no significant correlation was seen between LBW and maternal age. However, the mean difference of LBW between different age groups was found to be significant.