Assessment of Birth Weight and Its Related Factors among Infants Born in the Hospitals of Ahwaz Jondishapour University

Background: given the importance of birth weight and theeffects of anthropometric indices and socioeconomic statuson it, this study was conducted to assess birth weight and itsrelated factors among infants born in the hospitals of ahwazjondishapour university.methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out on 269 newlyborn babies and their mothers in hospitals of ahwaz jondishapouruniversity during 2009. neonate anthropometric measures wereobtained from hospital reports. the mothers were asked abouttheir weight before pregnancy, their weight gain and demographicand socioeconomic data. spss software version16 was used toanalyze the data. relationships among infants and mothers’anthropometric indices were assessed using bivariate correlation.results: 86.8% of the infants were normal as to weight, 8.7%were underweight, and 4.5% overweight. mothers’ weight gainduring pregnancy and bmi before pregnancy were 12.18±5.18(kg)and 24.75±4.78(kg/m2), respectively. there was a significantcorrelation between infant’s birth weight and mother’s weight,height and weight gain during pregnancy.discussion: results of this study showed that mothers’ weightbefore pregnancy and their pregnancy weight gain have a key rolein infant birth weight, so controlling the mother’s weight gainaccording to recommendation has a great effect on infant’s health.