To cite this paper: Umar A., Barnabas D., Murtala M.J and Ismaila A. 2014. Retrospective Study of Maternal age and Birth Weight in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi State, Nigeria. Asian J. Med. Pharm. Res., 4 (1): 01-04. 1 Retrospective Study of Maternal age and Birth Weight in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi State, Nigeria Umar Ahmad 1, 2 *, Barnabas Danborno 3 , Murtala M. Jibril 4 and Ismaila Ahmed 5 1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria 2. Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia 3. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria 4. Unit of Anatomy & Physiology, School of Nursing, Bauchi State, Nigeria 5. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria * Corresponding author’s Email: um4ahmad@gmail.com ABSTRACT: A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted to determine maternal age and birth weight status of the newborn babies from April 26, 2005 to October 13, 2009. A total of 9,647 populations of newborn babies and their respective mother’s age were copied into a data sheet form from maternity record of ATBUTH, Bauchi State. This is a hospital located in Bauchi metropolis that serves the needs of individual belonging to the lower socio-economic groups. This study was done to determine the mean birth weight, incidence of low birth weight and sex ratio of live term deliveries at ATBUTH, Bauchi. The mean (SD) maternal age for male and female newborns were 25.56(6.91) and 25.63(6.94) respectively. And for the mean (SD) birth weight was 3.14(0.57) for male newborns and 3.09(0.57) for female newborns. It was found that male infants were 50g heavier than female infants. The present study found that caesarean section (CS) is higher in babies with a mean (SD) birth weight of 3.21(0.66) and above, while spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) is at mean (SD) birth weight of 3.11(0.57) among people attending maternity ward of ATBUTH, Bauchi. Furthermore, difference in mean birth weight was statistically significant in case of sex (p<0.001). The sex ratio of the present population study was found to be 0.99, which means more female newborns than males. Emphasis on health education and promotion programmers to encourage late (non teenage) motherhood and discourage early pregnancies among individuals and also inform all the women during antenatal visits about the consequences of low birth weight and significance of delivering the babies with normal birth weight is recommended. Key words: Maternal age, Birth Weight, ATBUTH, Nigeria ORIGINAL ARTICLE Received 04 May. 2013 Accepted 30 May. 2013 INTRODUCTION Birth weight is one of the important indices in estimating health and the maturity of the newborn which is influenced by maternal factors like, maternal age, parity etc., and as well as the environmental factors e.g. pesticides . It is a well-recognized factor for evaluation of intrauterine growth and development. Extremes of birth weight are of great concern both to the Obstetrician and to the Pediatrician (Afrin, 2002). The differences in low birth weight of African babies when compared to the European babies can be attributed to the unfavorable environment where the Africans live (Swender, 2011). Low birth weight is the important cause of perinatal, neonatal and postnatal mortality and morbidity (Akter, 1999). Each year about (Olu Dunant, 2005) million infants are born weighing less than 2.5kg (Mahmood, 2004 and Begum et al., 1995). About 95% of them are in developing countries (Bhattacharlee, 1983). An average newborn infant in the developed countries weighs between 3.3kg to 3.5kg; in contrast an average newborn infant in developing countries weighs between 2.5 to 3.1kg (Afrin, 2002). Low birth weight affects about 5 to 6 million children of Nigeria every year. Here the average birth weight is 3.08 to 3.18kg (Pakrasi et al., 1985 and Olu Dunant, 2005). It is important to note that most of the low birth weight babies are born in lower class group (51.5%) and most of the average weight babies are born in higher class group (88.8%) (Makhija et al., 1990). Incidences are more in primipara and young mothers less than 20 years comprising 57.6%3. The intimate contact between an infant’s birth weight and the danger of mortality in the first year of life has been identified, and birth weight is frequently used by researchers as a criterion on mortality risk. At light and heavy birth weights, an infant’s risk of dying soars, in recent years, heavier infant birth have become less link with high immortality dangers, perhaps due to medical invention. Very light infants continue to be at great risk of immortality, morbidity (disease) and long- term developmental problem. Variation of average birth © 2014, Scienceline Publication www.science-line.com ISSN: 2322-4789 Asian Journal of Medical and Pharmaceutical Researches Asian J. Med. Pharm. Res. 4(1): 01-04, 2014 AJMPR