INTERGROWTH-21st: The project that redefined global standards for foetal and preterm growth
- The global, multidisciplinary INTERGROWTH-21st Project showed that babies grow similarly inside the womb and achieve a similar size at birth irrespective of ancestry, nationality or ethnicity, provided mothers are healthy, receive good healthcare, breastfeed, and are not exposed to environmental factors that adversely impact infant growth.
- The project produced international growth standards, which describe how all foetuses and newborns should grow across the world. The standards ensure disturbances in the growth of individual infants can be identified early. At population level, they enable health inequalities within and across countries to be highlighted.
- This report describes how the INTERGROWTH-21st Project led to the production of growth standards that can be used globally to assess infant development.
