WebMD Medical News Louise Chang, MD Jan. 21, 2010 -- Birth
weights of full-term babies in the United States decreased from
1990 to 2005, a new study says. Researchers at the Harvard
Pilgrim Health Care Institute’s Department of Population
Medicine, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and Boston
University published their findings in the February 2010 issue
of Obstetrics The researchers say their findings are surprising
because previous studies have indicated that birth weights have
been increasing over the past half But that’s not what’s been
happening in the past 15 years, at least, says co-author Emily
Oken, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard She
says her research team expected to find that birth weights were
still increasing, partly because of increasing age of mothers
giving birth and decreased rates of smoking. Instead, the
researchers say they found that birth weights of full-term
babies decreased by an average of 1.83 ounces between 1990 and
2005, and that decreases were especia