Abstract:

Background: Low birth weight is the term used to describe babies born weighing less than 2500gm regardless the gestation age, the average new born weighs about 3000g, low birth can be subdivided into very low birth weight (<1500), extremely low birth weight (<1000), and this should be measured within first hours of life before significant post-natal weight loss has occurred. The low birth weight is a leading cause of infants and children mortality and contribute to poor health outcomes and some disabilities and illness in the future (WHO).

Methodology: The study design was cross sectional prospectively study, all women total number of 217 who had given birth to a singleton live neonate at Bugando Medical Centre hospital who are willingly to participate in the study using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS.

Result: A total of 217 women respondent in the study where by most of them were aged between 15-25 (60.8%), were married (47.5%), attended primary school (40.6%) and (37.8%) were employed and there is some factors greatly associated with LBW Age, nature of the work, prolonged standing and alcohol consumption and sometimes health problem like diabetes mellitus.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, the study concluded that the low birth weight is affected by several factors including; age, nature of the work, prolonged standing and alcohol consumption and sometimes health problem like diabetes mellitus is less likely associated. The prevalence of low birth delivery on this study was almost similar to the result of other studies conducted in different areas in Tanzania and outside. Now the burden of the LBW delivery in this study is comparable to the other study conducted different countries in the world.