Vital characteristics of women as indicators of pregnancy risk

Abstract

The influence of some vital characteristics of women during pregnancy were evaluated per se by means of birth weight to acertain whether these characteristics can be considered predictive of pregnancy risk. The study was carried out on two populations, one receiving and one not receiving prenatal care. The mean birth weight, in both groups, distributed by risk score attributed to maternal age, number of pregnancies, parity, and interval between two consecutive births were not significantly different. These results suggest that the characteristics studied cannot be used as predictive indicators of reproductive risk. The importance of prenatal care was obviated by the finding of a higher mean weight at birth among women with prenatal care regardless of maternal age or number of pregnancies or inadequate interval between deliveries.