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Thirteen-pound babies may make headlines, but they aren't the norm. In fact, U.S. infants are getting smaller, according to researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Their findings, published in the February 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, suggest that birth weights in this country have declined during the past 15 years.
The study analyzed data on birth weight, maternal and neonatal characteristics, obstetric care and other trends from the National Center for Health Statistics Natality Data Sets, looking at 36,827,828 U.S. babies born at full-term between 1990 and 2005. Birth weight—a combination of fetal growth and length of gestation—was recorded in grams. The investigators teased out certain factors, including the mothers' age, race or ethnicity, education level, marital status and tobacco use, as well as the amount of weight the women gained during pregnancy and how early in pregnancy they received prenatal care. They also considered the women's risk of conditions like hypertension and use of obstetric procedures such as induction of labor and cesarean delivery.
The number of Down's syndrome diagnoses has risen steeply over the past two decades as women have postponed having families and become pregnant at a later age, but fewer babies with the condition are being born as most opt for terminations, research shows.
The birth defect rate rose again in the Chinese capital Beijing last year, mirroring increases elsewhere in the country, according to figures.
The city's birth defect rate has almost doubled in the last decade.
The causes of such defects are not clear, but there are concerns they could be related to heavy pollution.
The number of premature births has risen significantly but survival rates for babies born early have also improved, a study has found.
The number of premature babies rose from 54 per 1,000 births between 1980 and 1985 to 63 between 2000 and 2005.
Originally posted by kiwifoot
I beleive our species is in crisis ATS. Too many toxins, too much excess, a minimal connection to Mother Nature, no respect for the Natural Order of the Planet.
Originally posted by ukmadmax
Doesn't mean much as far as I'm concerned.
My boy is 17 and 6-1 weighing 180 lbs.
He captains the school at rugby and football, and holds the record for the 200 metres.
He weighed 5.5 lbs at birth.
Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
yeah we're listening...so what?
how d you expect to make babies more healthy?
we can listen all day long. what good does that do?
It seems inevitable that civilization must once again collapse. Too much to be done, too little time. We the people must take control of the corpogovernment bastards, but it seems nature will speak before we get that chance.
After the dust settles, then we can once again be in tune with nature.