Determinants of birth weight, a study of selected maternal variables

Case records of 216 mothers were analysed retrospectively to study the influence of prepregnancy weight, maternal height, haemoglobin, age and parity, and period of gestation on birth weight. Prepregnancy weight, maternal height and period of gestation were found to be significantly correlated with birth weight. The fitted regression model explained 29.88% of the total variation in birth weight with R2 for period of gestation being 14.37%, and R2 change being 11.85% and 3.66% when maternal weight and height were added respectively in the stepwise multiple linear regression analysis