Maltreated moms risk low-weight babies

SEATTLE, March 31 (UPI) -- Mothers maltreated as children have increased risk for giving birth to low-birth weight infants, U.S. researchers discovered.

Lead author Amelia Gavin, assistant professor in the University of Washington School of Social Work, says about 8 percent of U.S. babies are born weighing less than 2,500 grams, or 5-and-a-half pounds, annually.

Low-birth weight -- due to growth restriction in the womb or from being born prematurely -- puts newborns at a greater risk for death before their first birthday, and infants with low-birth weights who survive their first year are more likely to develop obesity, diabetes and other health risks later in life, Gavin says.

The rate of such births has increased since the mid-1980s even as prenatal care has improved, Gavin says.

"What matters most for healthy birth weights is the health status the mother brings into pregnancy," Gavin says in a statement. "We're trying to map pathways of early life exposures that lead to low birth weight."

The findings, published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, suggest a mother's economic position in childhood and her experience of maltreatment during childhood have implications for her children born years later.