News Blog Articles | Hotter Planet Means More Underweight Babies | Miller-McCune Online Magazine

If current projections of a warming planet prove accurate, researchers say the percentage of dangerously underweight newborns will increase significantly in the U.S. by the end of the century.

eMJA: Are babies getting bigger? An analysis of birthweight trends in New South Wales, 1990–2005

Results:

The proportion of babies born LGA increased from 9.2% to 10.8% (18% increase) for male infants and from 9.1% to 11.0% (21% increase) for female infants. The mean birthweight increased by 23 g for boys and 25 g for girls over the study period. Increasing maternal age, higher rates of gestational diabetes and a decline in smoking contributed significantly to these increases, but did not fully explain them.
Conclusions:

There is an increasing trend in the proportion of babies born LGA, which is only partly attributable to decreasing maternal smoking, increasing maternal age and increasing gestational diabetes.