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  Background & Objectives : Smoking is one of the major problems in the world today. It threatens people ’ s health. Pregnant women are no exception in this regard. Today, it is found that smoker women bear low birth weight babies, but the studies don ’ t offer clear findings about passive smoking in pregnancy and its effect on weight and height of newborns. This study is an attempt to determine the effects of passive smoking on the weight and height of the newborn babies.

  M ethods : This was a retrospective cohort study. We studied 100 pregnant mothers who were exposed to cigarette smoke and 100 others who were not. A checklist was completed in order to select those who could enter the study. A questionnaire was then filled out for both groups including the information related to the newborns ’ physical specifications.

  Results: This study showed that the average age of the mothers, their education, their husband ’ s education, number of pregnancies and the sex of babies born weren ’ t meaningfully different between the two groups. In the case group the mothers were exposed to cigarette smoke for 2.36 ± 2.28 hours on average and most of them (72%) were exposed to their husbands ’ cigarette smoke. The findings also indicated that difference in weight, height and head circumference among two groups ’ newborns were 11 grams, 0.15 cm and 0.02 cm respectively. The T-test indicated no significant difference between the two groups.

  Conclusion: The study showed that the newborns ’ of mothers exposed to the smoke had lower weigh, height and head circumference than the babies ’ of the control group subjects although the difference was not statistically significant.

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 Background & Objectives: 11% of all newborns in the developing countries suffer from low birth weight (LBW). Birth weight has an important role in individual health, family and society. Lower and higher birth weight from standard rate lead to morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine associations between some of maternal anthropometric measurements such as BMI, pre-gravida weight, height, age with birth weight.

 Methods: This is an analytical-descriptive study, in which there were 300 pregnant women who hard referred to Alavi Hospital, Ardebil for delivery. Maternal pre-gravida height, weight and birth weight were collected from their units. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by dividing the maternal pre-gravida weight in kg by height in m squared (kg/m²). The relationship between maternal anthropometric measurements and birth weight was analyzed by t-test.

 Results: Our study showed that 32 (10.7%) women had BMI<19.8, 185 (61.7%) BMI=19.8-26 and 83 (27.7%) BMI>26. 36.3% of women were under 55 kg, 48.3% between 55 to 70 kg and 15.3% over 70 kg. The relationship between maternal pre-gravida BMI, weight and birth weight was statistically significant (p=0.001). There was no significant difference between maternal age and neonatal birth weight.

 Conclusion: Pre-gravida body mass index (BMI) and weight could be two important anthropometric measurements associated with birth weight. Thus, it is recommended that women give adequate preconceptional and prenatal care to decrease the amount of LBW and HBW in population.

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  Background & Objectives: The high incidence of low birth weight (LBW) occurs in developing countries, and diarrhea and respiratory infections are the main causes of infant mortality and morbidity. This study was done to find out whether there was a growth or morbidity response to zinc supplememttion, among LBW infants during the first 6 mo of life.

  Methods: The study was a randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind trial study. LBW infants were given daily for 6mo 5mg zn, or a placebo. Questionnairs were filled out during the study by a pediatrician and a GP. Anthropometric measurements were made at 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 wk via home visits by trained interviewers.

  Results: Baseline characteristics were similar in zinc and placebo groups. Weight gain in zinc group was significantly higher that of placebo group between 1 to 6 months (p=0.036). Length and head circumference gain were also greater in zinc group than in placebo groups, (p=0.04, p<0.001). The episodes of upper respiratory infections was greater in placebo group than zinc group (mean Episodes in zinc groups= 1.7 and in placebo group was 3) and there was significant difference between two groups (p=0.005). 8 Cases of lower respiratory infections in placebo group and 5 cases in zinc group were observed, but it was not significan diarrheal episods were observed only in placebo groups.

  Conclusion: It was found that low birth weight infants had better growth and lower morbidity during the first 6 months of life by receiving zinc supplementation.

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  Background & Objectives: Birth weight less than 2500gr (as result of preterm delivery and/or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR)) is a major cause of both neonatal health. Predominate cause of LBW in developed countries is premature birth, whereas in developing countries is more often IUGR. Different risk factors, including demographic and behavioral during and before pregnancy are effective in LBW incidences which can reduce LBW and neonatal mortality rate by identification and control of these risk factors. The present study has been carried out with purpose of identification and decreasing the LBW rate in Ardabil.

 Methods: In this case – control study all infants delivered in 2006 in hospitals in Ardabil were investigated. Every neonate whose weight was less than 2500gr was taken as a case (n=470) and 482 neonates whose weight was more than 2500gr was taken as a control. Data gathering was done through questionnaires, interviewing the mothers and physical examination. The data were analyzed statistically through SPSS.

 Results: In the present study, the presence of LBW amount is %6.4 in Ardabil hospitals. The results of our study showed that a significant relationship existed between prematurely and gestational age<37wk, mother’s age, mother’s job and maternal weight, premature rupture of membranes (PROM), maternal diseases, multiple births, bleeding during pregnancy, interval between pregnancies less than <2 years, prior history of low birth weight, use of drugs by mother in pregnancy, congenital malformation with LBW. In this study relation between parity, the use of Folic Acid, Fe, cigarette smoking and addiction of mother, living area (village or city), family marriage, health care and mother’s education were not significant with LBW.

  Conclusion: The LBW important risk factors in Ardabil hospitals were prematurity or gestational age <37wk, multiple pregnancies, PROM, mother’s age over 35 years, and mother weight <50kg, maternal diseases.

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Background & objectives: Low birth weight is considered one of the most serious health problems in the world that puts tremendous pressure on the health care system and family. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between some maternal risk factors and low birth weight.
Methods: The present study was a cross- sectional study performed on 264 cases. The data gathering tool was a checklist with two parts to compare two groups in this research. The first part was related to the infant's characteristics (sex, weight, and gestational age of the newborn), and the second part related to maternal characteristics. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Inferential statistics including Mann–Whitney u, chi-square, fisher exact test and logistic regression were used to investigate the relationship between the variables.
Results: In this study, the level of education was lower in mothers with term low birth weight neonates (p=0.024), also normal delivery was reported more frequently among mothers with low birth weight infants (p=0.0001). Also, the mean BMI and the weight at the beginning of pregnancy and overweight in mothers with term neonates and normal weight were greater (p=0.0001, in all). The first minute Apgar score and the fifth minute Apgar score were lower in mothers with low-birth term infants (p=0.002 and p=0.0001). Also distinguished that the gestational age (week) was lower in mothers with low-birth term infants (p=0.0001).
Conclusion: According to the results, increasing progress the pregnancy per week makes it possible to increase the normal weight of newborns by 3.11%.