The New Nation - Internet Edition

WOMEN who have miscarried or had an abortion run three times the normal risk of having a subsequent low birth-weight baby, suggests new research.

The more miscarriages or abortions a woman has, the greater are her chances of giving birth to a child that is underweight or premature in the future, the research shows.

Low birth weight (under 2500 g) and premature birth (less than 37 weeks) are two of the major contributors to deaths among newborn babies and infants.

The study titled, "Previous abortion and the risk of low birth weight and preterm births" was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The authors used data from the United States Collaborative Prenatal Project, which was set up in 1959 to look at the associations between factors during pregnancy and birth and childhood development.

In total, more than 45,500 mother and child pairs were assessed. Nearly 40 per cent of the mothers had one or two children and almost two thirds were between 20 and 29 years of age.

Rates of low birth weight and premature birth were highest among mothers who were black, young or old, poorly educated and unmarried. But there was a strong association between miscarriage and abortion and an early or underweight birth, even after adjusting for other influential factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure and heavy drinking.

Women who had had one, two or three or more miscarriages or abortions in the past were almost three, five, and nine times as likely to give birth to an underweight child as those without previous miscarriages or abortions.

Similarly, women who had one miscarriage or abortion were 67 per cent more likely to have a premature birth, while those who had had three or more were over three times as likely to do so compared with those with no history of miscarriage or abortion.

Dr. Debabrata Halder

Medical Officer

Bangladesh Formed Police Unit

United nations African Mission in Darfur, Sudan