Rethinking ethnicity, fetal growth and customised charts.

Restricted intrauterine fetal growth is an indicator of poor infant health outcomes. Classifying abnormal fetal growth, however, is challenging because there is no accepted definition of "normal" and "abnormal." Many standardized fetal growth curves have been created from populations of healthy pregnancies, excluding congenital abnormalities and, historically, have also excluded "non-white" women (Lubochenco, 1963, Pediatrics, 32: 793-800). More recently, assuming that ethnicity is a reliable, valid, and unchanging variable, customized growth charts have adjusted for ethnicity, in addition to maternal height, weight, and parity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]