Abstract
Objective: To determine whether maternal prepregnancy shoe size can be used to reliably predict infant birth weight.
Method: This is a cross-sectional study of 111 consecutive patients admitted to the maternity care unit of a small community hospital. Data collected included prepregnancy height, maternal weight, maternal shoe size, maternal age, gravidity, parity, ethnicity, and method of delivery. Infant birth weight was recorded within the first 2 hours of life.
Results: There was no correlation between maternal shoe size and birth weight (r = 0.01; P = NS). There was no correlation between shoe size and birth weight when corrected for parity and ethnicity.
Conclusion: There is no correlation between maternal shoe and infant birth weight. This anthropometric measure should not be used to estimate infant birth weight.