Meaning
Low birth weight is a term used in the description of infants born weighing less than 5.5 pounds. The average weight for a normal child at birth should be above 8 pounds. In most instances, despite the baby being small, he/she might still be very healthy. However, low-birth-weight children are susceptible to a significant number of health-related complications such as bleeding in the brain, heart complication, and breathing problems. As they develop into adults, they will most likely suffer from obesity, high blood pressure, heart diseases and diabetes.
Causes
Socioeconomic inequalities across the globe contribute tremendously towards the high rates of health disparities. One of the major outcomes of low socioeconomic status is low birth weights, which are a leading infant mortality risk factor. In the USA, there is a clear socioeconomic gradient in low birth weight though the patterns tend to vary depending on the ethnicity/race. In the USA, the prevalence of low birth weight among African-American women is very high as compared to White women. In African-American women who are exposed to neighborhood poverty during their growth and development, they will tend to have higher incidences of low birth rates as they advance in age (Stolt et al., 2014). According to a study carried out in the state of Illinois between 1989-1981, it found out that there was an increased birth rate among former in low birth weight African-American women aged 14-35 as compared to whites(Stolt et al.,2014).In case of African-American women brought up in higher-income neighborhoods, the rates of low birth weight were very little.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Another major cause of low birth weight among African-American women is racism. The connection between an individual being black and discrimination is the major contributor to low birth weight (BHWI, 2017). Racism leads to the development of stress, and this affects the psyche and health of women. Racism is also known to hinder the African-American women’s ability to access good paying jobs and essential health services. The stress brought about by racism is known to increase the production of cortisol, which in turn reduces blood flow to the fetus, thus hampering its growth.
African-American women are also known to suffer from higher levels of blood pressure as compared to other women from different races (BHWI, 2017). High blood pressure does not just affect the mother, as it will hinder the fetus from getting enough nutrient and oxygen, and this leads to the birth of an underweight infant.
The Effect on the Development
Despite a substantial number of the low birth weight babies being healthy and normal, mots will end up developing various health defects and developmental disorders. Low birth weight is highly correlated with development of cerebral palsy and other types of brain disorders. In infants born with weights between 1-3 pounds, they have a 20% rate of developing brain disorders as compared to a 7% rate of those born with weights between 3-5 pounds (Shiono & Behrman, 1995). Likewise, as low birth weight children begin attending school, they will tend to have breathing problems such as asthma, learning disabilities and attention disorders. Collins, Ranking & Hibbs (2015) state that very low birth weight children also suffer from language development disorders at the end of their second year in school as compared to the other children.
Solution
In order to eliminate the high low birth weight prevalence amongst African-American women, prenatal care should be made available. However, prenatal care programs should focus more on the known causes of low birthweight among African-American women. With low income being a major cause of low-birth-weight, the development of social programs aimed at reducing poverty should be a major solution (Shiono & Behraman, 1995). Poverty leads to reduced access to nutrition, psychological and physical stress and health outcomes. There is also need to ensure that awareness campaign on lifestyle behavior is carried out. Lifestyles such as smoking and alcohol intake are known to lead to low birth weights (Shioni & Behrman, 1995). African-American women should be informed about the negative impacts of such lifestyles.
References
BHWI. (2017, July 23). Low Birth Weight Babies and Black Women: What’s The Connection? Retrieved from https://bwhi.org/2017/07/23/low-birth-weight-babies-black-women-connection/
Collins, J. W., Rankin, K. M., & Hibbs, S. (2015). The maternal age-related patterns of infant low birth weight rates among non-Latino whites and African-Americans: The effect of maternal birth weight and neighborhood income. Maternal and child health journal , 19 (4), 739-744.
Shiono, P. H., & Behrman, R. E. (1995). Low birth weight: analysis and recommendations. The Future of Children , 4-18.
Stolt, S., Korja, R., Matomäki, J., Lapinleimu, H., Haataja, L., & Lehtonen, L. (2014). Early relations between language development and the quality of mother-child interaction in very-low-birth-weight children. Early Human Development , 90 (5), 219-225.
