babies born to healthy, well-nourished mothers are strikingly similar in size the world over, scientists have shown.
On average, they have a body length of 49.4 centimetres (19.45 inches), an international study found.
Previously, it was suggested ethnicity was largely responsible for the widespread variation seen in the size of babies.
The research suggests race and ethnicity contribute little to baby size. What matters more is the education, health and nutrition of mothers, and the care they receive during pregnancy.
Overall no more than four per cent of differences in foetal growth and birth size could be attributed to population differences.
Scientists taking part in the Intergrowth-21st study looked at almost 60,000 pregnancies in urban areas of the UK, US, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Kenya and Oman.
Lead researcher Professor Jose Villar, from the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University, said: "We are not all equal at birth, but we can be. We can create a similar start for all by making sure mothers are well-educated and nourished."
Findings from the study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are reported in the journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article