Objective: The objectives of the study were to estimate gestational age specific birthweight centiles from healthy pregnancies in a defined rural block and compare the under-two month mortality rates in those belonging to the lowest and highest centile groups.
Design: Retrospective chart review.
Setting: Routine data collected regarding all pregnancies, births and deaths occurring in Kaniyambadi, a rural block in Southern India, between 2003 to 2012.
Subjects: All singleton live newborns of women without known major antenatal risk factors.
Main outcome measures: Gestational age- and sex-specific birthweight centile curves were created using the LMS method. Mortality rates for the first two months of life were calculated for those in various centile groups.
Results: The median birthweight at term was lower for the study subjects as compared to the median birth weights in the WHO child growth standards 2006, the US and the UK standards. Mortality rates for those with birthweights both below the 3rd centile as well as above the 97th centile higher than for those between 3rd and 97th centiles.
Conclusions: While absolute values of birthweights were lower than the WHO 2006 child growth standards there was a J shaped curve of birthweight and mortality. This suggests that in a given population, mortality increases at extremes of birthweights, even if some of these birthweights may be considered normal by other standards.