Medicine and Medical Sciences

Foetal weight estimation prior to delivery is key to clinical decision-making in obstetric delivery management. In anticipated pre-term and post-dated deliveries, counselling on the likelihood of survival and the intervention undertaken to postpone preterm delivery depends on the estimated foetal weight. We, therefore, carried out a comparative analysis of in-utero foetal weight estimation by clinical and sonographic methods with that of actual birth weight at term to determine which method was more accurate in predicting the actual birth weight. The study was an analytical study of clinical and ultrasound estimation of foetal weight compared with the actual birth weight of booked antenatal care women at a Tertiary Health Care facility. The mean actual birth weight was 3559.0 ± 531.2g while the mean of clinical and ultrasound estimated foetal weight were 3663.7 ± 520.8g and 3227.4 ± 6022g respectively. The sensitivity was 53.9% and 7.7% for clinical and sonographic methods respectively. The specificity was 79.5% for both methods. The diagnostic accuracy was 73% and 76% for clinical and ultrasound methods respectively. The accuracy of foetal weight estimation using Dare’s formula is comparable to ultrasound estimates for predicting birth weight at term. The clinical method by Dare’s formula and the sonographic method by Hadlock’s formula prior to delivery are comparable in predicting actual foetal birth weight.  

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