Intrauterine growth restriction

Intrauterine growth restriction, also called fetal growth restriction, is poor growth of a fetus in the womb during pregnancy. It is defined by clinical signs of malnutrition and evidence of reduced growth, whatever the infant's birth weight percentile. The causes are broad and can involve the mother, the fetus or the placenta. The condition can leave a baby small for gestational age, most commonly meaning a weight below the 10th percentile for the gestational age, and at the end of pregnancy it can result in low birth weight. At least 60 percent of the roughly 4 million neonatal deaths each year worldwide are associated with low birth weight, caused by this restriction, preterm delivery and genetic abnormalities, which shows that undernutrition is already a leading health problem at birth.