Birth characteristics of 5,278 pregnancies.

Several characteristics of newborns were investigated in our population from northwestern Greece, for the first time during the last 30 years, providing useful data. The study included 5,278 pregnant women who delivered from 1992-1996, and the following parameters have been studied: (1) age of pregnancy at the parturition, (2) weight of newborn, (3) weight of placenta, (4) age of the pregnant woman, and (5) length of the umbilical cord, all five in relation with parity. Statistically significant relationships were found between: (1) age of the pregnant woman and the parity (but not between paras-2 and paras-3), (2) weight of the newborns between primiparas, paras-3, and paras-4 as also paras-2 and paras-4, (3) length of the umbilical cord between primiparas and paras-3 and paras-4. No significant relationship was found between placenta weight and parity, nor between gestational age at the parturition and parity. The study gives these features for the first time, to our best knowledge, of the birth characteristics of a certain and very homogeneous population of northwestern Greece, and these useful data could be the basis for future studies and comparisons with other populations.