Past obstetric history of the mother and its association with low birthweight of a subsequent child: a population based study.

A total population sample of 7286 multigravidae from the Greek National Perinatal Survey (April 1983) was used to determine the association between maternal obstetric history and low birthweight of the subsequent singleton delivery. Significant associations were found with previous early and late fetal losses (miscarriages, induced abortions, stillbirths) and history of haemorrhage during a prior pregnancy. It was found that mothers who had experienced miscarriage(s), induced abortion(s) or stillbirth(s) had relative risks (RRs) of 1.65, 1.81 and 3.59 respectively compared with mothers without any fetal loss. The risk increased substantially with the increasing number of losses and reached 8.83 for the small group of mothers who had experienced all three kinds of fetal loss. For mothers with a history of bleeding in a previous pregnancy the risk was double that of mothers without such a history. The results above were changed only slightly when the significant socio-economic characteristics of the family were taken into account.