Birth Weight

The objective of this study was to compare the reproductive traits of heifers and the development characteristics of their calves following artificial insemination (AI) with sexed and non-sexed semen. The analysed characteristics included conception rate, gestation length, calf birth weight, calf vigour, stillbirth rate, and twinning rate. Data of 530 calves produced with sexed and 1,163 calves produced with non-sexed semen were analysed. The General Linear Model (GLM) was applied to assess the influence of semen type, farm, season of insemination, the calf’s sex and the inseminating sire on gestation length and calf birth weight. With the exception of gestation length (P > 0.05), all other traits studied were significantly (P < 0.01) influenced by the type of semen. The conception rate was 55% for conventional and 44% for sexed semen, and the average gestation length was 274.6 and 274.9 days, respectively. The mean calf birth weight was 37.47 kg for non-sexed and 36.75 kg for...

Mental health outcomes for survivors of critical congenital heart disease (CHD) remain under-investigated. We sought to examine psychiatric disorders and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with single ventricle CHD and to explore whether patient-related risk factors predict dysfunction. This cohort study recruited 156 adolescents with single ventricle CHD who underwent the Fontan procedure and 111 healthy referents. Participants underwent comprehensive psychiatric evaluation including a clinician-rated psychiatric interview and parent- and self-report ratings of anxiety, disruptive behavior, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depressive symptoms. Risk factors for dysfunction included IQ, medical characteristics, and concurrent brain abnormalities. Adolescents with single ventricle CHD had higher rates of lifetime psychiatric diagnosis compared with referents (CHD: 65%, referent: 22%; P < .001). Specifically, they had higher rates of lifetime anxie...

Summary. During the second pregnancy of 56 Swedish women resulting in a term birth, energy intake and physical activity were measured for 3 days at weeks 17 and 33. The values were related to maternal lean body mass, pregnancy weight gain, maternal fat accretion and infant birth-weight by multiple linear regression analyses. A significant regression coefficient was found for energy intake at week 17 on maternal fat accretion. Energy intake was not significantly correlated with infant birthweight, not even when physical activity and maternal lean body mass were taken into account. Thus in a well-nourished Swedish population, energy intake is positively related to maternal fat accretion but not to the birthweight of term infants.

The purpose of the study was to assess the association of obstetric complications with risk for mental disorders resulting in hospitalization before the age of 15. Records from all births in Denmark from 1973 through 1993 were linked to records of all psychiatric hospitalizations. Diagnoses were grouped into seven broad categories. A reference population of 10% of births in Denmark from 1973 to 1990 was used for comparison. Obstetric complications were associated with the range of mental disorders occurring in childhood. The strongest predictors were a variable indicating the interaction of birth weight with speed of growth and the 5-minute Apgar score. There was no diagnostic group that stood out as different with respect to obstetric complications. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of the continuum of reproductive casualty.

We randomly assigned 40 Union Council clusters in rural Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in equal numbers to intervention or control. Married women (aged 16–45 years) in their third trimester of pregnancy with perinatal depression were eligible to participate. In the intervention group, primary ...

The California Cerebral Palsy Project (CACP) is a population-based study of 192 children with moderate or severe congenital cerebral palsy who were born between 1983 and 1985 in four San Francisco Bay area counties and who were alive and residing in California at age 3 years. Initial ascertainment of cases was based on records of two agencies known to enrol virtually all CACP-eligible children. Final case status was established by standardised clinical examination in 67% of cases and extensive record review in 33%. The 192 cases gave a prevalence at age 3 of 1.23/1000 survivors. Twins were 10% of the cases with a prevalence of 6.7/1000. Overall, 53% of the cases had birthweight greater than or equal to 2500 g and 28% had birthweight less than 1500 g. There was no association between birthweight and severity of functional impairment and no consistent association between birthweight and the presence of associated disabilities. The CACP prevalence is lower than that reported in other s...

Weight charts and patterns of weight gain for pregnant women in Argentina are scarce. The aims of the study were: 1) to design a new reference weight gain chart to asses the nutritional status of pregnant women using the body mass index (BMI); 2) to estimate weight gain patterns, and 3) to compare it with a proposed reference chart. In 326 pregnant women before 16th week gestation at enrollment during 2001-2002 at the Sarda' Maternity Hospital (Buenos Aires), weight, height, mid arm circumference and skinfold were measured and body mass index was calculated. Mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and polynomial percentiles 3rd through 97th were generated for each gestational age between 12th to 42nd weeks. Maximum variability was 18.4% after 28th week, mean preconcepcional BMI was 24.2 +/- 4.5 kg/m2 and 96% of newborns were at term with a mean Ponderal Index of 2.7 +/- 0.2 g/cm3. Trimesters weight increments were 0.600 kg +/- 0.473, 6.476 kg +/- 3.739 and 5.388kg +/-...

OBJECTIVE: Decreased conjugation is probably more important than hemolysis for causing jaundice in G6PD-deficient neonates. The role of enzyme inducers, like phenobarbital, in G6PD deficiency is unclear. This randomized controlled trial was performed to evaluate ...

A retrospective analysis was undertaken in a consecutive series of 33 full-term infants (birth weight >2500 g and a minimum of 37 weeks gestational age) with symptomatic intracranial hemorhage (ICH) admitted to a regional neonatal intensive care unit from January 1986 to December 1992. Eleven infants were born in our institution; 17 were male. The estimated local incidence of symptomatic ICH for the inborn population was 4.9/10 000 live births, with a regional incidence of 2.7/10 000 live births. Twenty-four (72.3%) infants presented with seizures, apnea, or respiratory distress. Five (15.1%) children developed ICH associated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, ventriculoperitoneal shunting, and cardiac surgery. There were two deaths (6.1%) associated with a grade IV periventricular hemorrhage (PVH) and cardiac surgery. Nine infants (27.3%) showed PVH, while an additional nine children developed multifocal cortical hemorrhages. Eight infants (24.%) showed extraxial ICH, four children (12.1%) sustained lobar hemorrhages, and three children (9.1%) showed ICH associated with prenatal CNS abnormalities. Excluding five children with iatrogenic ICH, coagulopathies occurred in 9 of 28 infants (32.1%) and constituted a major determinant of the development of ICH. Neurosurgical intervention was limited to one infant with massive ICH and one child with hydrocephalus as a late sequela of ICH. Developmental follow-up was complete in 32 children with a mean and median duration of 3.4 years. Full-term infants with ICH associated with risk factors for hypoxic-ischemic injury showed a significantly greater risk of developmental delay compared to infants with uncomplicated ICH.

Infants are considered large for gestational age (LGA) if their birth weight is greater than the 90th percentile for gestational age and they have an increased risk for adverse perinatal outcomes. Maternal diabetes is one of the factors affecting birthweight. However there are limited data on the perinatal outcomes of infants of gestational diabetic mothers. The aim of the present study was to compare the neonatal outcomes of LGA infants delivered by women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus. This was a retrospective study of LGA infants of ≥36 weeks of gestation born at the Gazi University Medical School Hospital during the period of 2006-2009. Neonatal outcomes included hypoglycemia and polycythemia in the early neonatal period and hospital admissions. The Chi-square and Student's t test were used for comparing variables. Seven hundred eligible infant-mother pairs were enrolled in the study. Eighty-seven of them (12.4%) were infants of gestational diabetic mothers and 613 (87.6%) were infants of non-diabetic mothers. The incidence of hypoglycemia at the first hour was higher in infants of diabetic mothers (12.8%) than in infants of non-diabetic mothers (5.3%) (P=0.014). Polycythemia was also more frequently observed in infants of the gestational diabetic mothers (9.3%) than in infants of the non-diabetic mothers (3.0%) (P=0.010). Although overall hospital admission rates were not different between the two groups, infants of diabetic mothers were more likely to be admitted because of resistant hypoglycemia (P=0.045). The results of this study suggested that LGA infants of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus were at a greater risk for hypoglycemia and polycythemia in the early neonatal period than LGA infants of nondiabetic mothers.

1. To assess the accuracy of the gestation-adjusted projection method in estimating birth weight in Thai pregnant women. 2. To determine the efficiency of the gestation-adjusted projection method for the detection of low actual birth weight, normal birth weight, and large fetus groups. Diagnostic clinical trial. The present study was conducted on 328 uncomplicated pregnancies that were monitored at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charoenkrung Pracharuk Hospital during the period of August I to November 30, 2006. The fetal biometry was measured by ultrasound at 34 weeks' gestation or after Fetal weight was calculated according to Hadlock's formula. The extrapolation technique is based on the gestation-adjusted projection (GAP) method. The accuracy of the method was assessed by analyzing the weight predictions in relation to the actual birth weight (ABW). Main outcome measurements were simple error absolute error absolute percentage error and accuracy within 10% o...