Low Birth Weight: Causes And Consequences Of Low Birth Weight

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"Causes and Consequences of Low Birth weight"
Low birth weight can be defined as baby born with weight less than 2500g. It is one of the adverse pregnancy results in the world, which is affected to the newborn survival, growth and development. There are categorizes in the low birth weight; very low birth weight which a birth weight is less than 1500g and extremely low birth weight which is a birth weight is less than 1000g. An estimated 18 million babies are born worldwide each year with low birth weight and 9.3 million of them in south Asia. Low birth weight percentage in Sri lanka is 16% and is high in the developing countries. At that time, the low birth weight (LBW) rate for industrialized countries are 5%-7%. In England and Wales, the incidence of low birth weight increased from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 6.7 percent in 1990, while that of very low birth weight increased from 0.78 in 1980 to 0.98 percent in 1990 (and 1.2 percent in 1996 - Masuy-Stroobant and Gourbin, 1995, p. 73; Petrou, 2003, referring to
Macfarlane and Mugford, 2000). However, birth weight is a major factor in determining infant survival, future physical growth and mental development. In addition, maternal nutritional status mainly affect to the low birth weight.

Source: unicef

There are many causes affect to the LBW, one of that is deficiency of micronutrients of pregnant women. Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are essential elements for normal body function and growth. During pregnancy, nutrient requirement is increased when developing the fetal, placenta and also important to maternal growth. The impact of micronutrients deficiency on pregnancy is associated with increased maternal morbidity and mortality, abortion, low b...

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...n at school. His learning ability is lower than others. LBW also has a greater risk of being overweight or obese in adulthood and also affect to the diabetes, high blood pressure, renal diseases, atherosclerosis and heart diseases which are long term consequences of LBW. In addition according to some research, shown even healthy young men with LBW show changes in glucose metabolism such as increased whole body and specific tissue insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion. Low birth weight children can born at term or before term and have varying degrees of social and medical risk. Because low birth weight children are not a homogeneous group, they have a broad spectrum of growth, health, and developmental outcomes. While the vast majority of low birth weight children have normal outcomes, as a group they generally have higher rates of subnormal growth,

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