Low Birth Weight — Not a Black-and-White Issue

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Abstract
Black women in the United States remain at greater risk of bearing low-birth-weight infants (those weighing less than 2500 g) than white women. In 1991, 13.5 percent of black mothers gave birth to low-birth-weight infants, as compared with only 5.8 percent of white mothers.1 The reasons for this disparity are not fully understood. Low birth weight can be the result of shortened gestation (preterm delivery), poor intrauterine growth resulting in an infant smaller than expected for his or her gestational age, or both. Black women in this country are twice as likely to give birth to premature infants and infants . . .