Low Birth Weight Essay

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Causes and consequences of Low Birth Weight
Low birth weight (LBW) has become a public health problem in many regions of the world and it is the predominant cause of infant mortality. According to statistics of World Health Organization, there are about 30 million of low birth weight babies born in the world annually. Low Birth weight can be defined as the birth weight of a new born baby of less than 2.500 Kg regardless their gestational age at birth. This can be seen on both preterm babies as well as mature babies who have slow prenatal growth rate. Infants who are Low Birth Weight are more likely to have both short term and long term severe health consequences.
Low Birth Weight is stemmed mainly by poor maternal nutrition and infections. There are many other causes also contributed for the LBW such as social and economic factors, environmental risk factors and unacceptable lifestyle patterns of mother. As a whole, LBW arises many issues in the society. Therefore to overcome this problem strategies are need to be taken for a better fetal development.
Causes of Low Birth Weight
Low birth weight is arisen due to preterm birth, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) or both. Therefore low birth weight infants can be considered as a heterogeneous group of infants. Premature infants are born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Those babies account for about 70% of low birth weight infants in the world. In other words, many low birth weight infants are premature. This is linked with mortality, morbidity, disability in infancy and has a greater risk of having chronic diseases in later life.
Intrauterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) is referred to fetal growth that has been restricted by insufficient fulfillments of nutritional requirements. ...

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...lem in the world. LBW is arisen because of preterm births and, intrauterine growth retardation, or both. Many risk factors including low pre pregnancy BMI, poor dietary patterns, poverty, low antenatal weight gain, and infections causes the infants to be Low Birth Weight. There are many health consequences can be seen due to LBW and some of them are neonatal morbidity and mortality, effects related to cognitive and neurological development. Some suggestions to decrease the incidence of LBW are improving food intake, getting medications for chronic diseases, preventing teenage gestations, educating teenagers and mothers about LBW and preventing from infections and malaria. South Asia is the highest low birth weight reporting region in the world. UNICEF and World Health Organization have been conducting many projects to lower the low birth weight rate in the world.

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