[Birth weight of infants born between the 23rd and 42nd gestational week in Italy]. / Distribuzione del peso nei nati tra la 23a e la 42a settimana di gestazione in Italia.

ABSTRACT

The Italian distribution of birth weight has been computed using information routinely collected by the Italian Central Institute of Statistics on about 1,150,000 births in the period 1984-1985. Individual records include data on birth weight for single/multiple births for 28th-42nd gestational weeks and for delivery modalities for 23rd-27th gestational weeks, according to sex. This analysis shows, from a large national data-set, distribution of weight at birth from a Southern European population, providing to obstetrics and perinatologists curves of fetal growth more directly representative of the population under their care.