Comportamiento del bajo peso al nacer en el Policlínico Universitario "Héroes del Moncada" (2006-2010)

introduction: the low birth weight is an indicator that influence directly on the infant mortality and in the latter psychomotor development of the child. the program for reduction of the low birth weight suggest that the children with a birth weight lower than 2 500 g have a death risk greater during the first year of life, compared with the children with a term normal weight. objective: to characterize the behavior of the low birth weight during 2006-2010 in the "héroes del moncada" university polyclinic. methods: a cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study was conducted in 37 low weight newborns and their corresponding 34 mothers, three of them with twin pregnancy from a universe of 46 low weight newborns and 43 puerpera in total, from the above mentioned polyclinic. authors excluded those low weight newborns during 2006-2010 whose medical records lacking of the necessary information. results: the rate of low birth weight decreased until 2008 from which it start an increase to achieve the figure of 9.1 in 2010. the mother's mean age of the low weight newborns is over 30 years except for in 2006 and the mean weight behaved over 1 500 g. the 62.2 % of low weight newborns were white. the 29.7 % of mothers had an educational level of pre-university and a similar percentage in university graduate. there was predominance of vaginal sepsis and the gestational diabetes was present in 7 of the pregnants, where as the preeclampsia, the urinary sepsis and the multiple pregnancies were present in 18 of study women. the mothers of the 75.7 % of the total of low weight newborns not were admitted in the maternal home. conclusions: the rate of low birth weight increased from the two past years and the month of august had the highest rate. the great percentage of the low weight newborns were of white race with a average weight over 1 500 g, whose mothers at moment of delivery were aged between 21 and 40. the was predominance of preterm deliveries and births of female s