A case control study involving five hundred women who were admitted to Basrah Maternity and Children Hospital for the purpose of delivery and they were divided into two groups, two hundred fifty term size babies with birth weight below tenth percentile of gestational age and two hundred fifty control term size babies of normal birth weight were born during the same period from the first of January till the eighteenth of September 1998. The objective of this study is to determine the factors causing intrauterine growth retardation in Basrah.A higher incidence of previous abortion and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) were found among the cases (mothers carrying IUGR babies and that anaemia, hypertension, preeclampsia (PE) and antepartum haemorrhage (APH) were the common complications occurs in mother with IUGR babies.It was found that younger mother and shorter one gives birth to lighter babies than older one and IUGR was common among primigravidia mother.The majority of cases of IUGR in Basrah were found among the low socioeconomic class and being illiterate.
