Maternal determinants of intra-uterine growth retardation.

Forty mothers with full term low birth weight babies and 30 age-matched mothers with full term normal birth weight babies were studied to find out the relative incidence of common maternal aetiological factors in the causation of intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR). Attention was focussed to find out the relevance of the following factors: Age of the mother, weight of the mother, incidence of toxaemias of pregnancy, haemoglobin and serum protein values. It was observed that there was a statistically significant correlation between the incidence of IUGR and maternal weight of less than 45 kg and of toxaemia of pregnancy. Also, there was an increased association of IUGR with decreased value of haemoglobin and serum protein in mothers.