Abstract
It would be important to ascertain whether the increase in average birthweight after improvement of economic and health conditions is due to increasing length of gestation or better fœtal growth. Hospital records of three large Japanese obstetric services were used to obtain information on birthweight in relation to gestational age during a 20-year period in which not only recovery from war-time deprivation took place, but also increase in mean birthweight over pre-war levels. Duration of pregnancy was not increased, but fœtal growth curves showed a striking increase of weight for gestational age during the later part of the third trimester of pregnancy. This attests to the prominent influence of socioeconomic factors on fœtal growth. The curves are consistent with the hypothesis that differences in average birthweight of population groups are due to variations in the time at which growth begins to fall below optimal levels during the last part of the third trimester. Data on 6-year-old children born during some of the periods tested, also show an increase in body height and weight.
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