Effects of Birthweight Status and Gestational Age on the Quality of General Movements in Preterm Newborns

It is hypothesised that individual differences in nervous system functioning, undetected by a neurological examination, are reflected in the quality of spontaneous movements of preterm newborns. Given this hypothesis it is expected that a short pregnancy duration and IUGR will be related to an abnormal movement quality. These expectations were confirmed in a group of 37 small-for-gestational-age and appropriate-for-gestational-age preterm newborns with gestational ages ranging from 27 to 34 weeks without serious perinatal complications and for whom no overt neurological abnormalities could be detected based on the evaluation of elicited responses and tonus at the postmenstrual age of 35 weeks. The quality of general movements was adversely affected by both IUGR and a pregnancy duration below 32 weeks. Newborns with an abnormal movement quality also had significantly lower obstetrical optimality scores. Previous research has shown these scores to be related to the neurological condition of the newborn. We conclude that observations of movement quality, being neither intrusive nor time consuming, may constitute a useful addition to the neurological assessment of preterm newborns without serious perinatal complications.