Article ID: CBB977455918

Growth before birth: The relationship between placental weights and infant and maternal health in early twentieth-century Barcelona (2021)

unapi

Although a number of writers have argued that birth weights have increased in different parts of the world over the last 150 years, others have disputed this. The absence of clear evidence of increasing birth weights contrasts with the picture provided by child and adult heights and raises profound questions about the measurement of changes in intrauterine health. This article uses newly discovered data from Barcelona's Provincial House to examine the extent to which placental weights, and the ratio of birth weight to placental weight, can help to fill this gap. We find some evidence to suggest that there was an inverse relationship between placental weights and male real wages in Barcelona between c. 1908 and 1920. We also show that both low placental weights and high placental weights were associated with adverse birth outcomes. However, after reviewing a large number of different studies, we do not find any clear evidence of an unequivocal trend in placental weights over time. Our results also have implications for our understanding of the impact of the First World War on the standard of living in non-combatant countries and its long-term effects on those who were born during the conflict.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB977455918/

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Authors & Contributors
Töpfer, Susanne
Breathnach, Ciara
Bryder, Linda
Campos, Maria Soledad Zarate
Freidenfelds, Lara
Greenlees, Janet
Journals
Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam
Social History of Medicine
British Journal for the History of Science
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine
Gesnerus
Past and Present
Publishers
Pickering & Chatto
Harvard University Press
MIT Press
Oxford University Press
Publications de l'Université de Provence
Routledge
Concepts
Childbirth
Maternal health services
Mothers and children
Medicine
Women and health
Obstetrics and pregnancy
People
Farr, William
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
Ancient
18th century
21st century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Chile
Mesopotamia
Geneva (Switzerland)
Vietnam
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