Perinatal outcome for small-for-gestational-age infants from an unselected, area-based population.

From an unselected area-based population, where a screening programme for detection of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants was in use, the obstetrical and neonatal management of all SGA infants (birth wt. less than or equal to -2 S.D. of the normal mean) was studied. During 1980, there were 3038 singletons born at the University Hospital in Uppsala. The perinatal mortality was 0.6% (17 infants). Three stillborn infants were assessed as SGA, even when gestational age was estimated from the last occasion when fetal heart sounds were registered. Out of a total of 27 live-born SGA infants (0.9%), 19 were suspected and supervised antenatally. All SGA infants were admitted to the neonatal ward. One infant suffered from the fetal alcohol syndrome and one preterm infant died after 11 days due to septicaemia after abdominal surgery. The remaining 25 SGA infants escaped severe neonatal problems and were discharged from the hospital around the time of expected delivery. It is concluded that once an SGA pregnancy is identified and supervised, the risk of intrauterine death is minimized and that the neonatal period generally is uncomplicated for the normally shaped and adequately cared-for SGA infant.