Gestational Age Specific Postnatal Growth Curves for Singleton Babies in A Tertiary Hospital of Western Nepal

INTRODUCTION: Measurement of birth weight, crown-heel length, head circumference and chest circumference used to assess the intrauterine growth of a baby vary with altitude, race, gender, socioeconomic status, maternal size, and maternal diseases. The study aimed to construct centile charts for birth weight, crown-heel length and head circumference for new born at different gestational ages in Western Nepal.

METHODS: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study done over a period of 15 months in a tertiary care hospital of Western Nepal. Birth weight, length, head circumference and chest circumference were measured within 12-24 hours of birth. Gestational age was estimated from the first day of last menstrual period and New Ballard's scoring system. Microsoft 2007 Excel and SPSS-16 was used for data analysis. Cole's Lambda Mu Sigma method was used for constructing centile curves.

RESULTS: Out of 2000 babies analysed, 1910 samples were used to construct smoothed intrauterine growth curve of birth weight, crown-heel length, and head circumference from 33-42 weeks of gestation. Among all, 1147 (57.35%) were male and 853 (42.65%) were female, mean gestational age was 38.13±2.44 weeks. The means of birth weight, crown-heel length, head and chest circumference were 2744.78 gm, 47.80 cm, 33.18 cm, and 30.20 cm with standard deviations of 528.29, 3.124, 1.78, and 2.35 respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: This necessitates the update in the existing growth charts and development in different geographical regions of a country.