Small-for-gestational-age babies of low-risk term pregnancies: does antenatal detection matter?

Abstract

Objectives: To compare delivery route and admission rate to neonatal intensive care unit between small- and appropriate-for-gestational-age babies among low-risk term pregnancies.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using the database of deliveries in 2014 at a tertiary hospital. Babies delivered at ≥37 weeks with birthweight <10th centile were considered small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and >90th centile were considered large-for-gestational-age. Fetal weight estimation at 30–33 weeks ultrasound <10th centile was considered antenatal detection of SGA.

Results: Among 1429 low-risk term pregnancies, 11% (151/1429) had SGA babies and 5% (75/1429) had large-for-gestational-age. SGA babies were associated with higher rate of cesarean sections for nonreassuring fetal status (18/151 versus 8/1202, p < .001) and higher rate of admissions to neonatal intensive care unit (16/151 versus 18/1202, p < .001) compared to appropriate-for-gestational-age. Within SGA group, antepartum detected fetuses were associated with lower rate of operative deliveries for nonreassuring fetal status than undetected group (3/31 versus 39/120, p = .01)

Conclusions: In our series, women with SGA term babies were associated with more adverse obstetric and neonatal outcome than appropriate-for-gestational age, especially among those undetected prenatally.

Keywords:

• Small-for-gestational-age
• antenatal screening
• cesarean delivery
• nonreassuring fetal status
• neonatal intensive care unit admission

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Research Grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) – SFRH/SINTD/92997/2013.