Pregnancy outcome in short statured women.

Three hundred and forty short statured mothers (height less than 145 cm) were compared with 680 mothers (height more than 145 cm) who served as control to isolate problems associated with pregnancy and labour in the former. Short statured mothers hailed from poorer social class and had an unhealthy family and past history and higher incidence of pelvic deformities and abnormal presentations. They had a lower possibility of delivering vaginally and higher incidence of instrumental deliveries. Their offsprings were likely to be less in weight and suffered from a significantly higher incidence of stillbirth and neonatal death. All this made a short statured mother a high-risk patient.