THE NORMAL ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS FOR HEALTHY FULL TERM NEWBORNS IN NAJAF CITY

Background:-Determination of newborn growth parameters is necessary in each population from different locations for planning their subsequent children growth charts and thus detecting disease by recognizing overt deviation from normal patterns. Objectives:-To establish the normal anthropometric measurements ( Wt, L, OFC, CC, MAC and MTC) for appropriately grown full term newborns in Najaf city-Iraq. Patients & Method:- A study was carried out enrolling 500 singleton healthy full term neonates (268 males and 232 females), (325 urban and 175 rural), (166 primipara and 334 multipara), (290 VD and 210 CS), (205 regular ANC and 295 irregular ANC) who completed 37 weeks of gestation and were delivered in Al-Zahraa maternity and children teaching hospital during the period between 1st April to 30th of October 2010. The data and measurements were done during the 1st day of life with exclusion of newborns of mothers with high risk, complicated pregnancies and labors. The included measurements were Wt, L, OFC, CC, MAC and MTC. Wt was measured by electronic scale, L by hard plastic platform (stadiometer), other measurements by flexible non-stretchable plastic tape measure. The studied variables were gender, residence, parity of the mother, mode of delivery and antenatal care. The data analyzed by SPSS (version 17) program for mean, standard deviation, range, p-value and correlation coefficient. Results:- Males had a significantly higher CC than females with no significant difference in OFC, Wt, L, MAC and MTC. There was a highly significant difference in Wt between urban and rural neonates( Urban were higher). A significantly higher OFC in rural than urban neonates with no significant difference in L, CC, MAC and MTC. There was a highly significant difference in OFC between multipara and primipara women neonates (multipara were higher). Multipara women neonates were significantly higher in Wt than primipara women neonates. There was no significant difference in L, CC, MAC and MTC. There was no significant difference in OFC, Wt, L, CC, MAC and MTC regarding the mode of delivery whether it was VD or CS.A significantly higher OFC and Wt in neonates of mothers with irregular ANC than neonates of mothers with regular ANC. Conclusions:-This study established local normal values for anthropometric measurements (Wt, L, OFC, CC, MAC and MTC) for healthy, full term newborn in Najaf city. There was a highly significant degree of correlation between all the studied measurements.