Publication:

A cross sectional study on socio-demographic and maternal factors associated with low birth weight babies among institutional deliveries in a tertiary care hospital, Hyderabad, Telangana

Background Birth weight is an important indicator of new born growth, survival and psychosocial development. Globally, more than 20 million are born with low birth weight (LBW) and the prevalence of low birth weight in India is 20%. The study was conducted to find the proportion of low birth weight and the factors influencing the weight of the baby.

Methods A cross sectional study was conducted at Gandhi hospital, Telangana from September to November, 2015 using a semi structured questionnaire among 204 postnatal mothers.

Results Out of 204 live births, 26% were found to be low birth weight. About 44.4% LBW babies are born to teenage mothers and 70% among the mothers with height less than 140 cms. Of the pre-term babies, nearly half of the babies (49.3%) were low birth weight. Around 30.3% of LBW was found with an inter-pregnancy interval of <2 years. About 41.2% of the mothers having complications had low birth weight babies.

Conclusions Nearly one fourth of the newborns were low birth weight. Gender of the child, socioeconomic status, education, gestational age, inter pregnancy interval, medical complications were found to affect the birth weight.