{"id":11236,"date":"2014-07-07T15:55:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T20:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/?p=11236"},"modified":"2014-07-17T11:48:43","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T16:48:43","slug":"madres-sanas-de-todo-el-mundo-tienen-bebes-con-un-tamano-sorprendentemente-similar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/madres-sanas-de-todo-el-mundo-tienen-bebes-con-un-tamano-sorprendentemente-similar\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Mothers around the Globe Have Babies Surprisingly Similar in Size\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/14-Madres-sanas-de-todo-el-mundo-tienen-bebes-con-un-tamano-sorprendentemente-similar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-11241\" src=\"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/14-Madres-sanas-de-todo-el-mundo-tienen-bebes-con-un-tamano-sorprendentemente-similar.jpg\" alt=\"14 Madres sanas de todo el mundo tienen bebes con un tamano sorprendentemente similar\" width=\"196\" height=\"130\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A study that tracked 60,000 pregnancies in eight urban regions of the world has revealed that healthy mothers around the globe have children of similar size, regardless the race or ethnicity.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Malnutrition and health, not race or ethnicity, are the only actual causes of difference; exposes the study.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Babies\u2019 growth in the uterus and their birth size, especially length, are remarkably similar around the world, as long as the moms are healthy, well-educated and well nourished.<\/p>\n<p>This finding was carried out in the study international INTERGROWTH-21, led by researchers of University of Oxford. It analysed 60,000 pregnancies in the eight urban areas of Brazil, China, India, Italia, Kenia, Oman, United Kingdom and US.<\/p>\n<p>Globally, there are large differences in the babies\u2019 average size at birth. This has important consequences for the future health of children; since malnourished babies at birth often face short- and long-term consequences. Previously, it had been suggested that \u201crace\u201d or \u201cethnicity\u201d were partly responsible for these differences in size. However, the new findings shown that race and ethnicity are not the main factors for this. What matters most is mothers\u2019 education, health, nutritional status and the attention received during pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers performed ultrasounds of the pregnancies since the beginning to the end; in order to measure the fetal bone growth in the uterus. Identical measurement methods were used in all countries. They also measured baby\u2019s head length and circumference at birth; which resulted overwhelmingly similar in size under the condition that they were born to well-educated mothers in good health who ate well during pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>These findings indicate that &#8220;Currently we are not all equal at birth. But we can be,&#8221; says lead author Professor Jose Villar of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics &amp; Gynaecology, University of Oxford; quoted by Eurekalert. &#8220;We can create a similar start for all by making sure mothers are well educated and nourished, by treating infection and by providing adequate antenatal care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon&#8217;t tell us nothing can be done. Don&#8217;t say that women in some parts of the world have small children because they are predestined to do so. It&#8217;s simply not true.\u201d said Villar<\/p>\n<p>In general, the total variance was no more that 4% in fetal growth and babies size at birth. This is what it could be attributed to differences between the eight populations.<\/p>\n<p>Developments in education, health and nutrition of mothers around the world would improve the health of their sons for their entire life and for the next generation. It is estimated that approximately 32.4 million babies were born with a nutritional deficiency in poor or moderately poor countries in 2010. This represents 27% of all births worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Small size at birth is closely related to illnesses and even death during childhood. Also, it has an impact in adult health, as it increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Smallest babies also pose substantial costs to health services, as well a major economic toll for society.<\/p>\n<p>The ultimate goal of INTERGROWTH-21 study is to develop international standards that describe the optimal fetal and new-born growth; guidelines that reflect how the baby should grow when mothers have ideal living conditions and adequate attention.<\/p>\n<p>Having international standards of optimal growth of a child, from birth until five years old, will serve as a guideline to assess development in health and nutrition with the same yardstick worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, from The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, who is the Chair of the Steering Committee of this global research team; said: &#8220;The fact that when mothers are in good health, babies grow in the womb in very similar ways the world over is a tremendously positive message of hope for all women and their families\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Bhutta, communication is only half the battle, and the real challenge lies in changing the beliefs and habits among health professionals. &#8220;There are implications in terms of the way we think about public health: This is about the health and life chances of future citizens everywhere on the planet,&#8221; says Bhutta. &#8220;All those who are responsible for health care will have to think about providing the best possible maternal and child health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tendencias21.net\/Madres-sanas-de-todo-el-mundo-tienen-bebes-con-un-tamano-sorprendentemente-similar_a35347.html\" target=\"_blank\">www.tendencias21.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study that tracked 60,000 pregnancies in eight urban regions of the world has revealed that healthy mothers around the globe have children of similar size, regardless the race or ethnicity. Malnutrition and health, not race or ethnicity, are the only actual causes of difference; exposes the study. Babies\u2019 growth in the uterus and their &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-11236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad-en-la-salud","tag-materna","cat-3-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11236"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11452,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions\/11452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}