Throughout pregnancy, a woman undergoes routine fetal ultrasound diagnostics several times. At the last two appointments with an ultrasound specialist, she finds out the approximate weight of the unborn baby. This information is assessed by the obstetrician, who can, based on the data obtained, establish indications for a planned caesarean section or allow a woman to have a natural delivery.
Newborn
What affects baby's birth weight
The birth weight of the baby depends on the lifestyle of the pregnant mother. If a woman does not follow the recommendations for organizing her activity and nutrition, the baby may be born overweight.
Pregnant women are advised to walk an hour a day, mandatory walks in the fresh air. Many women, lazy, sit by the open window, comforting themselves that they honestly received their portion of fresh air. Low physical activity not only contributes to obesity and the formation of edema, but also delays the supply of nutrients to the unborn child, including oxygen.
Proper nutrition contributes to the full development of organs and tissues in utero, and also reduces the risk of obesity for the expectant mother.
Interesting. A large number of women are sure that, being in an interesting position, they should eat for two. In fact, the amount of food eaten per day does not differ from what a woman ate before pregnancy.
Pregnant on a walk
Severe toxicosis, which does not allow the expectant mother to eat, becomes the cause of the birth of a small baby. If everything that the pregnant woman eats, without having time to be absorbed, comes out with vomit, the obstetrician decides to hospitalize the woman in order to inject her nutrients through a dropper.
The purpose of monitoring infant weight
Assessment of the dynamics of the baby's weight is one of the main criteria indicating the normal development of the child. When the mother has enough milk, and the baby's body works without interruption, the body weight steadily increases every day.
Using the dynamics of weight, you can find out the amount of milk drunk by a child at one time. When a baby is bottle-fed, it is easy to understand how much he eats in one feeding - the half-eaten remains in the bottle. But mom does not see how many milliliters of milk she has in her breast, so it is impossible to determine the amount of milk by eye.
Finding out, however, is not difficult - just weigh the baby before and after feeding. The ratio of weight gain and volume drunk can be considered identical. If the baby weighed 3300 g before feeding, after feeding - 3400 g, this means that he ate about 100 ml of milk.
Ideal newborn baby weight
The ideal weight can be considered the weight of the baby, which is within the normal range, with which the birth was easy, and there were no breaks in the mother's birth canal. According to statistics, these are babies weighing from 3000 g to 3300 g. Such babies are well formed, easily adapt to new conditions, do not suffer from excess weight or lack of strength due to their low weight.
Boys
The average body weight of newborn boys is 3533 g. Firstborns always weigh slightly less than the next children. The second and subsequent childbirth ends with the birth of boys, whose normal weight at birth is already 3627 g.
Girls
First-born girls are born easier than boys. The average weight of a first-born girl is 3316 g. Subsequent are born, as a rule, heavier - 3506 g.
Additional Information. Girls often have a smaller head circumference than boys. Women say that having a girl is easier than having a boy.
Indicators for lack of weight
The normal weight of a child at birth is in the range of 2500 to 4000 g. Children born with a weight below the minimum value require more frequent and close attention from doctors. The weakest newborns, with great underweight, can be placed in a special neonatological box, where they will be helped to recover to safe values.
Newborn in boxing
Help for a small baby
Most often, twins and triplets are born with a large underweight. This is due to prematurity. Multiple pregnancies rarely end in due date delivery. Most often, babies are born at 33-36 weeks, in contrast to singleton pregnancies, which are considered full-term only by 40 weeks.
Depending on how low the weight of the newborn was, doctors decide to maintain its condition with the help of droppers, thus introducing nutrition into the body to replenish the weight deficit. In other cases, which do not require a special diet, the baby is simply examined more often, they monitor the dynamics of growth, and may recommend supplementary feeding with a mixture, in cases where the weight gain in breast milk is insignificant.
Overweight indicators
Newborns heavier than 4 kg are considered overweight children. If the mother of the child does not stand out in curvaceous forms, the child needs to be examined. To do this, take blood for analysis to exclude hormonal disorders in the body.
When a large woman enters the maternity ward, the obstetricians already guess what her baby will be like. Children inherit the traits of their parents. In addition, diets are difficult for large ladies, which is why they abuse overeating even during pregnancy, which will certainly affect the health and size of the child.
How it affects the development of the child
Overweight babies find it more difficult to adapt to their new environment. A heavy chest is harder to lift with the lungs, and it is difficult for the heart to pump blood when there is a lack of oxygen. The spine is exposed to unnecessary stress. If you do not take measures to normalize body weight in time, it will be difficult for the baby to sit, crawl, and subsequently stand up.
Weight change in the first days of life
The baby's weight at birth changes on the first day. Unlike height, body mass indicators change frequently and indicate the child's condition at the current time. In the maternity hospital, on the third day, the baby is weighed again, and these indicators are always less than those obtained in the first minutes after birth. This happens because the baby begins its vital activity: it empties the intestines and bladder, and its swelling also subsides.
Additional Information. The newborn's original feces are dark green in color. This is the absolute norm. Children, being in the womb, swallow amniotic fluid, and by the end of gestation, the intestines are filled with meconium, which can be emptied even before birth.
It is believed that weight loss on the third or fourth day after birth, amounting to 5-8% of the initial indicators, is the absolute norm. That is, a child born with a body weight of 3.5 kg can weigh from 3325 g to 3220 g at discharge.
This weight loss is physiological and is not a cause for concern. If the child continues to lose weight for 5-6 days, you should find out the reasons for what is happening. After 4 days, the mother's breast is filled with milk, which means that the baby begins to receive adequate nutrition in large volumes than in the previous days. Therefore, children by the end of the first week are already beginning to gain weight.
How to measure weight yourself
The easiest and most convenient way to find out the weight of a child is to put it on a baby scale. However, not every family has them. In this case, you can measure the child's weight using a conventional floor scale. To do this, an adult needs to weigh himself on his own and remember the obtained value, so that after he has weighed in with the child in his arms, subtract his weight from the joint.
Weighing
If you have a baby scale, it is important to know the following:
- the child is weighed without clothes;
- the values obtained after bathing will not be reliable;
- first, the diaper is weighed, on which the baby is then placed, so as not to take into account its weight in the future;
- to determine the dynamics of growth, weighed correctly at the same time, for example, one and a half hours after the day's feeding.
A happy and healthy child asks for food no more than once every two or two and a half hours, enjoys exploring the world and examines his mother by touch. If there is nothing in the condition and appearance of the baby that would cause concern, you should not weigh him every day. It is enough to do this at a scheduled monthly appointment with a pediatrician. It is better to spend time not on measurements, but on enjoying motherhood.
