INDEPENDENT EFFECT OF MATERNAL BIRTH-WEIGHT ON INFANT BIRTH-WEIGHT

The relationship between the birth weights of the mother and her infan t was evaluated in a sample of 106 women consecutively delivered of a single live birth. Women were included in the study if their birth wei ght was available in hospital files or from another reliable source. W omen that were themselves a twin or had diseases complicated the cours e of the pregnancy were excluded. A positive significant correlation w as found between mother and infant birth weights (r = 0.29, p = 0.003) . This correlation remained significant (partial r = 0.22, p = 0.039) after adjusting for other covariables such as the mother's age, height , education, whether the pregnancy was planned, number of cigarettes s moked daily during pregnancy, month of first antenatal visit and numbe r of visits, weight at end-pregnancy, gestational age and sex of the n ewborn. In the multiple linear regression model, mother's birth weight explained 3% of the variation observed in infant birthweight. A weake r crude correlation was also found between mothers' birth weight and g estational age (r = 0.19, p = 0.06). This study shows that maternal bi rth weight is an independent predictor of infant birth weight, and con firms previous findings suggesting that this maternal factor has a str onger effect on the birth weight than on the gestational age of the ne wborn.