The use of clinical gestational age assessment in the construction of standards for birthweight in a rural nigerian community.

The management of low birthweight infants in the developing world is complicated by the lack of criteria for distinguishing between preterm and small gestational age newborns. Clinical gestational age assessment has been applied to 850 normal singleton neonates in a rural Nigerian community. The technique used was sufficiently accurate to enable centile curves for birthweight and gestational age to be constructed. Comparison with a European community showed that in the African babies weight gain was reduced in late pregnancy and had ceased by 40 weeks gestation but that the median birthweight was less at each week of gestation studied. The preparation and use of such reference curves for birthweight and gestational age for the study of the reasons for these differences is discussed.