Variable MN9 : Size of child at birth

File: wm

Women aged 15-49 who gave birth to a child in the 2 years preceding the survey

The eligible woman selected for interview

Categories

When your last child (name) was born, was he/she very large, larger than average, average, smaller than average, or very small?

Low-birthweight babies are at higher risk of serious illness or death than other babies. Mothers are asked to give the baby's birthweight, but since some babies are not weighed at birth, a mother's subjective assessment of the baby's size at birth is important. When the information from women who answer these questions is analysed, we can obtain an indication of what women mean by these subjective categories. This information can provide an estimate of the average birthweight.

Read the entire question exactly as written before accepting an answer. This is the woman's own opinion about the size of her baby. Even if she knows the child's birthweight, tell her that you want to know her own idea of whether the baby was very large, larger than average, average, smaller than average or very small. If the respondent is unable to tell you, do not try to guess the answer based on the birthweight information or the appearance of the baby; circle '8' for 'DK'. In cases when the woman knows the birthweight of the baby and tells you the exact weight, do not use your judgement to influence her response in MN9. In other words, even if the woman tells you that her baby was smaller than average while the birthweight she is stating is quite large in your opinion, do not probe further to 'correct' the woman's perception of the size of the baby.