Abstract

LOPEZ, José Israel; LUGONES BOTELL, Miguel; VALDESPINO PINEDA, Luis M.  and  VIRELLA BLANCO, Javier. Some maternal factors connected with low birthweight. Rev Cubana Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2004, vol.30, n.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3062.

A descriptive and retrospective study on some maternal factors that influenced on the low birthweight of newborn infants in Playa municipality from January 1st to December 31, 2002, was conducted. A questionnaire was designed to obtain the information from the obstetric medical histories of 115 mothers and 118 newborns with low birthweight under study. There were 3 twin birhts with low birthweight infants, too. Socioeconomic and biological indicators, such as maternal age, educational level, smoking habit, personal pathological history, bad obstetric antecedents, associated affections and/or depending on pregnancy, nutritional assessment at the beginning of pregnancy, weight gain, gestational age, and weight at the time of birth, were analyzed. The neonate was classified into delayed intrauterine growth, preterm and into the combination of both. One of the main results was that the delayed intrauterine growth was the main cause of low birthweight. The poor obstetric antecedents with the highest incidence were the intergenesic period under 24 months, the low preconceptional weight and fetal death. The most common associated affections in pregnancy were vaginal infection, anemia, and arterial hypertension. The delay of the fetal growth, the premature rupture of the membranes and multiple pregnancy were the most frequent affections characteristic of pregnancy. The extreme maternal ages, the low educational level, the smoking habit and the maternal malnutrition isolatedly had not a great influence on the incidence of the low birthweight newborn; whereas, the insufficient weight gain during pregnancy did have it.

Keywords : Low birthweight newborn; pregnancy; intergenesic period; fetal death; vaginal infection.