Developing advanced tools to track and predict birth weight

Accurate birth weight prediction is critical for obstetric decision-making, influencing delivery timing, mode of delivery, and neonatal resource preparation. Current clinical practice relies on ultrasound-based fetal weight estimation and population-based growth charts, both applying uniform thresholds regardless of individual patient characteristics. This approach creates two distinct clinical problems: first, misclassifying constitutionally small fetuses as growth-restricted when they are appropriately small due to parental genetic factors, and second, missing fetuses with true pathological growth restriction who appear normal by population standards but are growing below their individual genetic potential.