Reproduction - The Littlest Of Our Babies

One of the earliest indicators of a baby's health is her weight at birth. Low weight at birth (less than 2,500 grams, 5 lbs. 8 oz.) is not only the cause of 70% of infant deaths and a third of all handicapped conditions, it also affects the life of the child as an adult — for the worse. Low-birth weight is usually abbreviated as LBW.

This subject has been covered in this volume already — see Children's Health: Low- Birthweight, in Chapter 1. Here we present somewhat more data for a shorter time span, but for every year, and also point out black and white differences in the very low birth- weight category. The data will refresh the user's memory before we conclude this chapter with a look at babies — what reproduction is all about.

A note about very low-birth weight babies. The two lines at the top of the graph show the percentage of LBW babies in that category, those under 3 lbs. 4 oz. at birth. As for LBW babies, so here again for the very tiny children, the figure for blacks (23.6%) is much higher than from whites (17.5%). Black women also have the highest rate of premature births of all racial groups (17.3%). The corresponding rate for non-Hispanic whites in 2000 was 10.4% and for Hispanics it was 11.4%.

Trends in low-weight births have risen slightly over the last 20 years in part the result of dramatic increases in multiple birth, a subject we have just covered. Among whites, 6.5% of all live births in 2000 were low-weight. Among blacks this figure was 13.0%..4% and for Hispanics it was 11.4%.

Although the trend over the period shown has been towards more LBW babies, there was a slight decline from 1999 to 2000, overall and for each racial group. It will be good news if this single year trend continues.

Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "Births: Final Data for 2000," National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 50, No. 5, February 12, 2002.