2006, Volume 12 No. 1

ARTICLE 8

Symphysis-Fundal Height and Abdominal Circumference Measurements as Indicators for Low Birth Weight

Fatemeh Shobeiri¹ & Mansour Nazari^2
1Maternal and Child Health, Department of Obstetrics, School of Nursing & Obstetrics, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan - Iran
²School of Medicine, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan - Iran

ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to determine if symphysis-fundal height and abdominal circumference measurements at the umbilical level could be used as indicators of risk for low birth weight infants. Thereby simple equations could be derived to predict birth weights. Five hundred pregnant women in their first trimester, belonging to the middle and upper socioeconomic families from Mysore City, India, participated in the study. They were monitored till one-week post delivery period. The mean symphysis-fundal height at the end of second and third trimesters was 25.2 ± 1.9 and 32.5 ± 2.5 cm, respectively. Significant associations between birth weight and symphysis-fundal height (r=0.219, P<0.01) or abdominal circumference (r=0.438, P<0.01) or weight gain was noticed at the end of the second trimester, suggesting these to be valuable indicators. A symphysis-fundal measurement of less than 25 cm or abdominal circumference of less than 95 cm in the second trimester is significantly associated with low birth weight infants. Maternal weight gain of less than 3 kg at 28±2 week of pregnancy had a higher association with low birth weight. These should be used as monitoring parameters for risk pregnancies. These parameters can be applied in the prediction of low birth weight babies and allow appropriate interventions to be undertaken during the antenatal period.

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