Small for dates babies: Are they really a problem?

Abstract

One hundred and sixty four infants <5th centile for gestation specific birth weight were born at gestations ≥37 weeks in the Cambridge Maternity Hospital in 1982. Of these, 60 were <2.3rd centile-that is, > 2 standard deviations below mean birth weight. Serious disease was rare: only six (4%) had recognisable malformations. There was only one neonatal death, a baby <2-3rd centile with the Neu-Laxova syndrome. Nine (5%) became hypoglycaemic but with no serious symptoms: one of these was already on the neonatal unit with respiratory distress syndrome and was given intravenous dextrose, and the remaining eight all responded to milk feeds. Only 13 out of the 164 patients (8%) were admitted to the neonatal unit, eight of the 12 survivors for 48 hours or less. Small for dates babies of 37 weeks' gestation or more pose few neonatal problems and can be safely cared for on a postnatal ward.