Abstract

MARINO MEMBRIBES, Eida Rosa; AVALOS GONZALEZ, María Marlén  and  BARO JIMENEZ, Victoria Guadalupe. Risk factors influencing low birth weight at "Aleida Fernandez" clinic. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2012, vol.28, n.2, pp. 18-27. ISSN 0864-2125.

Introduction: the birth of an underweight child has been a mystery to health professionals at all times. Objective: to determine risk factors influencing low birth weight, at "Aleida Fernández" clinic from 2007 to 2009. Methods: a retrospective cross sectional study was carried out from 2007 to 2009. The universe was 31 pregnant women whose babies had weights below 2 500 g, and the sample 22 pregnant women, who received prenatal care in our health area. We used percentage, mean and standard deviation as descriptive statistics. Results: 16 (72.7 %) out of the newborns had intrauterine growth retardation and 10 (45.4 %) were preterm. 100 % of the patients studied developed vaginal sepsis, and 18 (81.8 %) developed anemia. Conclusions: low birth weight remains a health problem and during pregnancy, there are numerous predisposing risk factors and / or causes such as: a history of abortions and nulliparity, malnutrition, poor maternal weight gain, the presence of anemia, and vaginal sepsis. The continuous and systematic, conscious work aimed towards high-risk population is crucial for reducing this negative event.

Keywords : infant low birth weight; inadequate weight gain; vaginal sepsis; maternal malnutrition.

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