Incidence of Delivery of Low Birthweight Infants in Twin Gestations

ABSTRACT

Twin gestations are commonly associated with delivery of low birthweight infants. Despite the fact that Nigeria has the highest incidence of twinning in the world; there is paucity of information on the characteristics ofLBWtwin infants in Nigeria. To determine the incidence and document some of the characteristics of low birth weight (LBW) twin infants. Adescriptive analysis of data on 119LBWtwin infants delivered between 1st January; 2000 and 31st December; 2003 in a Nigerian mission hospital in Benin City was carried out. The characteristics of the LBW twin infants was studied in relation to perinatal mortality. The overall incidence of LBWtwin infants was 51.7with a female preponderance. Of the 107 liveborn LBWtwins; 74 (69.2) compared to 33 (30.8) were preterm and term small-for-gestational age (SGA) infants respectively (p