Unified standard for fetal growth: the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fetal Growth Studies.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Fetal Growth Studies–Singletons developed fetal growth standards in a contemporary, race and ethnicity diverse, and healthy multisite population in the United States.1Grewal J. Grantz K.L. Zhang C. et al.Cohort profile: NICHD Fetal Growth Studies—singletons and twins.Int J Epidemiol. 2018; 47 (25–25l)Google Scholar The study revealed differences in fetal growth, represented as size-for-gestational-age, by maternally self-reported race and ethnicity, demonstrable as early as 10 to 16 weeks’ gestation.2Buck Louis G.M. Grewal J. Albert P.S. et al.Racial/ethnic standards for fetal growth: the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies.Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2015; 213: 449.e1-449.e41Google Scholar,3Buck Louis G.M. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fetal Growth Studies’ Research Team Grewal J. Clarification of estimating fetal weight between 10-14 weeks gestation, NICHD Fetal Growth Studies.Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2017; 217: 96-101Google Scholar Based on these findings, fetal growth standards stratified by race and ethnicity were developed because pooling results among self-identified racial and ethnic groups may differentially classify growth at the extremes, namely small for gestational age (SGA) or large for gestational age (LGA).4Epidemiology BranchFetal growth calculator. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.https://www.nichd.nih.gov/fetalgrowthcalculatorDate: 2020Date accessed: February 11, 2021Google Scholar,5Albert P.S. Grantz K.L. Fetal growth and ethnic variation.Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2014; 2: 773Google Scholar For example, the study-derived standard based solely on the White racial and ethnic group classified up to 15% of fetuses born to non-White mothers as SGA (estimated fetal weight [EFW] of