來自東南亞國家的外籍配偶在近十年來人數快速增加。以新竹市為例，這四年來平均每七對新婚夫婦就有一對是外籍配偶，比例仍在逐年增加中。台灣男子迎娶東南亞國家的跨國婚姻主要目的不外乎傳宗接代，因此多數外籍配偶都很年輕，但平均教育程度不高。況且，來自東南亞國家的外籍配偶大多不會講中文，也幾乎從沒來過台灣，要在短時間內適應完全陌生的生活環境實屬不易。 台灣社會早期並未正視跨國婚姻所可能產生的問題，直到這幾年來才開始逐漸知道所謂「新移民」與其子女這個新的族群。「新移民」的相關問題紛紛浮上檯面後，才大幅引起社會大眾的注目、學術界的研究與政府的關切。由於語言溝通、風俗習慣等文化及環境的差異，使得外籍配偶在生活上常感受有形與無形的壓力，再加上婚後多數迅速生育，而相關優生保健知識不足，可能對新生兒先天與後天的健康造成負面的影響。 曾有文獻顯示，外籍配偶比本國籍配偶更容易生出低體重新生兒。由於外籍配偶的平均生產嬰兒數高於本國籍配偶，如果相關研究一再證實上述現象，我國的醫療總支出將因支應昂貴的低體重新生兒健康照護費用而快速急增。因此，本研究期能了解低體重新生兒發生的原因，以協助未來懷孕的母親事先避免危險因子的發生，進而有效減少低體重新生兒的發生率。 本研究以民國93年設籍在新竹市的所有生產婦女為研究對象，原始樣本數共計4,952位，經剔除異常、無效的樣本後，有效樣本數為4,452位。在使用SPSS統計套裝軟體進行敘述統計和卡方檢定分析後發現，懷孕母親年齡越高與新生兒父親年齡越高，生出低體重新生兒的機率就越高；母親懷孕週數小於37週，比較容易生出低體重新生兒；母親懷孕期間曾經安胎，比較容易生出低體重新生兒；新生女嬰比男嬰更容易出現低體重；第二胎比第一胎更容易出現低體重；和單胞胎新生兒相比，雙胞胎新生兒比較容易出現低體重；年齡35-39歲的父親比其他年齡層更容易生出低體重新生兒。

Foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia have been rapidly increasing for a decade. For example, there are on average one out of seven new couples have foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia in Hsinchu City for the last four years. More and more foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia get married to men in Taiwan is because those men need wives to have babies. Most foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia are young, not highly educated, never been to Taiwan, and not able to speak mandarin. Therefore, it is quite difficult for them to adapt to the totally unknown environment in a short period of time. The potential problems caused by cross-country marriage have not been seriously noticed until the group of "New Immigrants" recently appears more and more apparently in Taiwan. Due to the differences in language, culture, and environment, foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia have been usually facing great pressure in their daily life, both tangible and intangible. In addition, most foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia have babies short after they get married, but they do not have enough knowledge related to maternity health, this may bring negative impacts on their newborns. Some literature indicates that foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia are more likely to have low birthweight babies than their native counterparts. If it is true, national medical expenditure will rise very rapidly due to soaring costs of care for low birthweight newborns, especially because foreign spouses from Southeastern Asia tends to have more babies than natives spouses on average. Therefore, this study intended to explore the possible causes of low birthweight deliveries, in order to assist future pregnant women to avoid the risk factors for low birthweight deliveries and effectively reduce low birthweight newborns. This study focused on all women who delivered babies in Hsinchu city in 2004. There were 4,452 valid samples, after the abnormal and invalid values were removed from the original 4,952 samples. The descriptive statistics and Chi-Square Test from the SPSS implied the following findings: the older the pregnant woman, the higher the rate of low birthweight deliveries; by the same token, the older the newborn's father, the higher the rate of low birthweight deliveries; women with pregnancy less than 37 weeks are relatively easier to deliver low birthweight babies; pregnant women with tocolysis are relatively easier to deliver low birthweight babies; baby girls are more likely to be low birthweight than baby boys; the second twin newborn is more likely to be low birthweight than the first one; compared with single newborns, twin newborns are more likely to be low birthweight; compared with other age groups, fathers aged from 35 to 39 years old are more likely to have low birthweight newborns.