More Babies Born With Low Birth Weight

When a baby is born, his or her weight isn’t just a matter of trivial curiosity, or a fun fact shared by the proud parents. A baby’s weight and size at birth lays the foundation for the child’s future growth and development. Therefore, trends in recent years showing a deterioration in birth weight of Malaysian babies have raised concerns among healthcare professionals. In 2022, almost 13 in every 100 live births were low birth weight babies, and this number has been steadily increasing over the previous years. We sit down with Dr Azanna Ahmad Kamar, Consultant Neonatologist from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, to look at the complex factors leading to low birth weight trends. 

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