Maternal factors influencing very low birth weight babies: A hospital -based case -control study from India

Background and Objective: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of very low birth weight (VLBW) as well as to identify various maternal factors associated with VLBW among newborns delivered at a tertiary care teaching institute. Methods: A hospital -based retrospective case -control study was done at the neonatal intensive care unit of GITAM Institute of medical sciences and research, Visakhapatnam from January 2019 to December 2021. Data were collected from a total of 250 mothers who delivered babies weighing 1.5 kilograms as cases, and age -matched 250 mothers who had babies weighing 2.5 kilograms as controls. Multiple factors that influenced VLBW were analyzed. These factors were maternal, neonatal and delivery factors. Findings: The prevalence of VLBW babies was 2.5%. VLBW was high in babies of mothers from lower to lower -middle -class (68%), mothers with parity 4 or more (39.6%), anemic mothers (P 0.0001), preterm babies (62%) (P 0.0001), born through cesarean delivery (65.6%). Also, VLBW proportion was lower among babies born to mothers who took iron and folic acid (IFA) tablets compared to control (P 0.0001). Conclusion: Several factors like illiteracy of mothers, number of living children, increased parity, inadequate consumption of IFA tablets and anemia during pregnancy were found to be associated with very low birth weight. Most of these factors are modifiable and can be managed easily by providing adequate antenatal care.