Maternal and perinatal characteristics of small-for-gestational-age newborns: Ten-year experience of a single center

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the maternal and perinatal characteristics of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborns compared with appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) newborns in singleton pregnancies managed at our hospital between January 2006 and December 2015. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study (n=456) and control (n=4925) groups included pregnancies resulting in SGA and AGA newborns, respectively. Additionally, two SGA subgroups were defined according to abnormal (n=34) and normal (n=57) Doppler findings. Maternal demographic features; intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) pregnancies; gestational age at delivery; birth weight; major congenital anomalies, karyotype abnormalities, and genetic syndromes; maternal and obstetric problems such as hypertensive disorders, diabetes, oligohydramnios, preterm birth; admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and perinatal mortality were recorded, and the two groups were compared with respect to these parameters. RESULTS: Mean maternal age, parity, gestational age at delivery, and birthweight were significantly lower; the frequencies of ICSI pregnancies, hypertensive disorders, oligohydramnios, preterm delivery, major congenital anomalies, karyotype abnormalities and genetic syndromes, admission to the NICU and perinatal mortality were significantly higher in the study group (p<0.05). None of the study parameters were significantly different between the two SGA subgroups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The association of SGA with ICSI pregnancies, hypertensive disorders, oligohydramnios, preterm delivery, congenital/chromosomal anomalies, NICU admission and perinatal mortality may be important in perinatal care. Clinical suspicion of SGA necessitates appropriate monitorization and management. Although obstetric outcomes were not significantly different between the two SGA subgroups with abnormal and normal Doppler findings in this study, this finding must be evaluated with caution due to the small sizes.