Another study regarding the risks for low birth weight was performed in Texas women by Tierney-Gumaer et al (2008). The risks factors for low birth weight was determined in this study. Several hospitals in Bexar County Texas were involved in this study and more than 38000 infants were assessed, out of which 2900 were determined as low birth weight. Several measurements were taken including infant birth weight, maternal age, race, ethnicity, previous pregnancies, education levels, smoking, drug abuse, BMI of the mother before the pregnancy, prenatal visits, past medical history, problems faced by the mother, etc.
Some of the factors that seemed to result in low birth weight according to this study included race, ethnicity, prenatal visits, previous pregnancies, maternal weight gain, first prenatal visits, etc. People belonging to the African-American communities have these risk factors and hence have low birth weight neonatal more commonly than others (Tierney-Gumaer, 2008). Another study was conducted by Vega et al in Santiago Chile to determine the incidence and the causes for low-birth weight from January to December 1989.
The cases included those who had babies born below 2500 grams and controls included those who had babies born above 2500 grams. About 2 % of all the participants were those who gave birth at home. The women in the case group were 453, which included 153 in the IUGR group and 300 in the low birth weight and preterm born group. 605 were included in the control group. More than 25 risk factors were identified, which played a role in the development of low birth weight. It was found that there were many factors responsible for the development of low birth weight and IUGR, out of which smoking was one of the major factors.
Thus it can clearly be seen that low birth weight is significantly associated with maternal smoking and maternal drug abuse. In the future, greater number of studies should concentrate on determining the exact mechanism by which maternal smoking would restrict growth and the ability of the fetus to put on body weight. It was also found that women who belonged to the lower socio-economic groups and smoked during their pregnancy were at a higher risk for developing low birth weight infants due to the effect of other risk factors.
Work Cited
CDC-MMWR. “Effects of Maternal Cigarette Smoking on Birth Weight and Preterm Birth — Ohio, 1989. ” CDC-MMWR 39(38) (1990): 662-665. http://www. cdc. gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001782. htm Mirahmadizadeh, A. and Nakhaee, N. “Prevalence of waterpipe smoking among rural pregnant women in Southern Iran. ” Med Princ Pract 17(6) (2008): 435-9. http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/18836270? ordinalpos=15&itool=EntrezSystem2. PEntrez. Pubmed. Pubmed_ResultsPanel. Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel. Pubmed_RVDocSum