Researchers found that if the economy was a worse than expected in the state where mothers resided during the first trimester of their pregnancies, their babies averaged 3.7% smaller compared to others of the same gestational age. The study looked at a sample of more than 6,700 U.S. births between 1982 and 2000, and also examined differences by the mother’s education level, race/ethnicity, employment and poverty status.
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The findings are significant because evidence increasingly suggests that fetal growth is an important predictor of health later in life, says Claire Margerison-Zilko, Ph.D., one of the study’s researchers, and a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Social Work Research at the University of Texas-Austin. Babies born smaller than the norm have an increased risk of neonatal and infant morbidity and mortality, she says. Later in life, they face an increased risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
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Economy Is Destroying Babies! was originally published on elev8.com
