Washington: Brain damage among low birth weight infants could be due to prematurity or less time spent in the womb and infections and not due to lack of oxygen, claim researchers at the Johns Hopkins University.

For the study, published in the June issue of 'The journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology', the researchers examined 213 babies born weighing less than three pounds, five ounces.

The scientists noted that the smaller the infants were at birth and the less time they spent in the womb, the more likely they were to have some form of brain damage. Babies born with infections were also more likely than those without infections to have brain complications.

"A lot of medical malpractice cases try to relate brain damage to oxygen deficiency during the birthing process," says lead author Cynthia J Holcroft, MD, an instructor of gynaecology and obstetrics. "In our study, oxygen deficiency played a very small role in the neurological injuries seen in these infants. Even with the increase in the Caesarean rate from five per cent to almost 25 per cent, and the widespread introduction of electronic foetal heart rate monitoring, the incidence of cerebral palsy and other problems has remained unchanged over the past 40 years."

ANI