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US Newborns Get Smaller

Mysterious drop most acute with mothers considered least at risk

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 22, 2010 2:38 PM CST
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(Newser) – The birth weight of the average full-term baby born in the US decreased by 1.83 ounces between 1990 and 2005. Researchers discovered the trend, which runs counter to received notions about increasing birth weight, after studying the records of 37 million newborns. Even more surprising, babies delivered by the group at the lowest risk for low-birthweight infants—white, well-educated nonsmokers with good prenatal care—had the biggest drop in weight, 2.78 ounces, reports LiveScience.

"We were startled by the findings," the senior author of the National Institutes of Health study tells the Los Angeles Times. "We tried really hard to explain it away, but we were unable to."

A newborn on a scale.
A newborn on a scale.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 29 comments
YetAnotherCollegeKid
Jan 28, 2010 5:02 AM CST
The weight of a baby has almost nothing to do with genetics. They grow at such an accelerated rate during that time that a small woman can be heavier at birth than a big man. The mother's nutrition, body weight, vices or lack thereof, and hormone balance are the primary variables in a babies' birth weight. But we can't 'explain it away' until we understand which thing is causing the decreased weight and whether that is good or bad overall.
YetAnotherCollegeKid
Jan 28, 2010 4:53 AM CST
Dead on. Humans have been doing this for a hundred million years before we were human. Our bodies have worked out the kinks by now. I would lay good odds that you will have a healthier pregnancy and birth by going with your gut than by following ANYONE'S advice. This is as natural a part of being human as breathing. You wouldn't take someones advice about the right way to breath if it went against your instinct, would you? Then why would you do it during pregnancy?
laughindragon
Jan 27, 2010 10:38 AM CST
Good bye Transfats. That's partially hydrogenated polyunsaturated fats to the uninitiated. Adults aren't fattening up as much as they have been. We really need to outlaw the transfats. Not just require labeling. Poor people eat the most transfats. I go to a market near a Native American reservation and the amount of transfat rich margarine sold is scandalous.

 
pregnancy • baby • prenatal care • newborn • scientific study • medical study • gestation • birth weight

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