Principal investigator: Mark A. Klebanoff, M.D., M.P.H.
It has been known for a considerable time that pregnancy outcomes are similar within a given woman, but until recently little was known about whether women who were themselves small at birth were more likely than other women to have small infants. This project utilizes information from many sources to answer the question. Most recently, the study has followed up with women who were born in the Philadelphia and Providence centers of the Collaborative Perinatal Project (1959-1966) to see how their children's size at birth correlated with theirs. A similar follow-up study was conducted among women born in the Danish Perinatal Study (1959-1961). In summary, this research showed that women who were themselves small-for-gestational age at birth were at increased risk of giving birth to small-for-gestational age infants when they grew up and became pregnant. However, women who were themselves born early were not at greatly increased risk of delivering early when they became pregnant.

Recently, the research community has had increased interest in whether people who were small at birth are at risk for a variety of conditions, such as hypertension, high blood cholesterol, and coronary artery disease, when they become older. These follow-up studies are an ideal place in which to address this question. During the next few years, the investigators plan to use this and other data to evaluate rate of intrauterine growth and body proportionality in infancy and childhood, the rate of postnatal growth during childhood and pregnancy outcome in adulthood, and other related questions.
 

Selected Publications

Hemachandra AH, Howards PP, Furth SL, & Klebanoff MA. (2007). Birth weight, postnatal growth, and risk for high blood pressure at 7 years of age: Results from the Collaborative Perinatal Project. Pediatrics, 119(6):e1264-1270. [Abstract]

Hemachandra AH, Klebanoff MA, Duggan AK, Hardy JB, & Furth SL. (2006). The association between intrauterine growth restriction in the full-term infant and high blood pressure at age 7 years: Results from the Collaborative Perinatal Project. International Journal of Epidemiology, 35(4):871-877. [Abstract]

Hemachandra AH & Klebanoff MA. (2006). Use of serial ultrasound to identify periods of fetal growth restriction in relation to neonatal anthropometry. Am J Hum Biol, 18(6):791-797. [Abstract]

Hemachandra AH, Klebanoff MA, & Furth SL. (2006). Racial disparities in the association between birth weight in the term infant and blood pressure at age 7 years: Results from the Collaborative Perinatal Project. J Am Soc Nephrol, 17(9):2576-2581. [Abstract]

Klebanoff MA, Secher NJ, Mednick BR, & Schulsinger CS. (1999). Maternal size at birth and the development of hypertension during pregnancy: A test of the Barker hypothesis. Arch Internal Med, 159:1607-1612. [Abstract]

Klebanoff MA, Zemel BS, Buka S, & Zierler S. (1998). Long term follow-up of participants in the Collaborative Perinatal Project: Tracking the next generation. Paediatr Perinatal Epidemiol, 12:334-346. [Abstract]