Future at Risk

Low birth weight (LBW) is a reliable and sensitive indicator for predicting the immediate and long term outcome of a newborn. It is a crucial determinant of infants’ health at birth, child’s survival and freedom from sickness and also mother’s antenatal health and well-being.  Low birth weight is defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as weight less than 2,500 grams at birth. This is based on epidemiological observation that infants weighing less than 2500 gms are approximately 20 times more likely to die than heavier babies due to wide range of poor health outcomes.  This standard and uniform criterion to demarcate normal and low birth weight babies facilitates international comparisons and monitoring of global trend. LBW is a strong determinant of infant morbidity and mortality in India and as a multi-factoral interrelationship exists between the environment where pregnant women lives and the fetal growth,it is also a major indicator of socio-economic development. Global estimates by UNICEF shows that incidence of low birth weight newborns was nearly 22 million i.e. almost 16 per cent of all babies born globally are low birth weight. There is only marginal reduction in proportion of LBW babies in past 15 years. As per averages by UNICEF 2009-13, worldwide magnitude shows phenomenal regional variation with incidence of LBW ranging from only 6 per cent in East Asia/Pacific region to 28 per cent in South Asian region. Difference in developed and developing countries is striking, 95 per cent of low birth weight babies are born in developing countries and nearly 40 per cent of all LBW babies in developing world are born in India.  In India, the prevalence of LBW infants is about 28 per cent in compared to 4.5 per cent in developed countries.

mother’s relation to new born baby

Renu Kumari

Classical

Price : `400    

Pages : 128

It is in this context, Dr. Renu Kumari has written this book  Mother’s Relation to New Born Baby with an aim to suggest ways to improve this condition. This book will create awareness among pregnant women about antenatal check-up and relation between maternal health with birth weight of new born. This book surely gives an idea about planning and nutritional management of food intake in order to provide better nutrition to pregnant women, which will help  reduce low birth weight, morbidity, mortality and ill health. The book would have been a good read but is replete with spelling mistakes and in serious need of acute proof-reading.

by Nilabh Krishna