Intrauterine growth rate in relation to anorectal and oesophageal anomalies.

It has been widely, though not universally, accepted that a baby who is born before the end of 37 weeks' (259 days) gestation is premature and that one who weighs less than 2500 g. at birth has a low birthweight. Many recent studies have drawn attention to the importance of intrauterine growth rate as judged by the difference between actual and expected weight at birth in relation to gestational age. The Perinatal Mortality Survey The infant who, when born, is small for the length of gestation, small-for-dates, may be small because of retardation of intra- uterine growth, though However, the small-for-dates baby differs from the true premature infant in several ways, one being a higher incidence of congenital malformation (Van den Berg and Yerushalmy, 1966).