Worth the Weight? Recent Trends in Obstetric Practices, Gestational Age, and Birth Weight in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Birth weight in the United States declined substantially during the 1990s and 2000s. We suggest that the declines were likely due to shifts in gestational age resulting from changes in obstetric practices. Using restricted National Vital Statistics System data linked birth/infant death data for 1990-2013, we analyze trends in obstetric practices, gestational age distributions, and birth weights among first-birth singletons born to U.S. non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Latina women. We use life table techniques to analyze the joint probabilities of gestational age-specific birth and gestational age-specific obstetric intervention (i.e., induced cesarean delivery, induced vaginal delivery, not-induced cesarean delivery, and not-induced vaginal delivery) to fully document trends in

SUBMITTER: Tilstra AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8350969 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature