RICH BLOOD AFFECTS GROWTH OF BABIES

RED ALERT

Washington: Women with high blood pressure and blood over -rich in red blood cells are more likely to give birth to babies who are too small or born too early, researchers in the Netherlands said.

                Mothers who  smoked or who did  not take supplements correctly also were underweight or born too early, the study found-and these factors seem to affect the foetus during the first three months of pregnancy, before a women has had much prenatal care.

                But early ultrasounds may help identify the babies moat at risk, the study suggests. Dr Dennis Mook-Kanamori and colleagues at Erasmus Medical Centre in  Rotterdam studied 1,631 pregnant women, doing ultrasound scans of their fetuses between 10 and 13 weeks gestation. Babies that were the smallest during this period of early, rapid growth were also more likely to be born early or to be underweight at birth, Mook-Kanamori's team reported.

             But as they grew into toddlers, these babies tended to grow too fast - a pattern that can cause such children to become obese.

             "Higher diastolic blood pressure and higher hematocrit levels were associated with a shorter crown to rump length," the researchers wrote. REUTERS