The birth weight of newborns is the single most important determinant of its chances of survival as well as healthy growth
and development. A full term normal newborn weighing less than 2500 gms at birth is termed as Low Birth Weight (LBW) infant.1
Globally 17% of approximately 142 million newborns have low birth weight, of these 95% are in the developing countries2. World
health report has stated the occurrence of LBW in India to be approximately 33%.3 Low Birth Weight contributes to high mortality
and morbidity, half of perinatal and third of infant mortality can be attributed to it.3
Birth weight is used as a measure of Low Birth Weight because of its correlation with gestation and ease of recording in
hospital setting. However in our country 70 to 90% of deliveries are conducted at home by trained birth attendants or untrained
relatives where weight recording is a problem4. If these personnel are trained to take anthropometric measurements at birth and
accordingly identify LBW babies, appropriate care of these LBW babies can be undertaken at the earliest. Therefore a study was
conducted to find an alternate, simple , low cost, reliable predictor of birth weight to identify LBW newborns.