Seema Singh's doctor has told her to rest more before her baby is born.
Her third baby, due in late May, was a little under weight at her last ultrasound, around 2.2 kilograms. On Saturday, at her 37-week scan, she will find out whether her concerted effort to rest has made a difference.
''Everything is OK but the doctor said the baby was a little bit small,'' Mrs Singh said.
''Sometimes I feel I cannot get enough time to look after myself and to eat and rest,'' she said.
The Craigieburn mother of two boys said without family in Melbourne it was hard to find the time to rest. Her husband is a self-employed taxi driver who works 12-hour days, six days a week.
Mrs Singh was happy with the weights of her two older children, Kanwar, 10, born in India, and Uday, 5, born in Australia, who both weighed about 2.8 kilograms at full term.
A major study has compared the multicultural background of mothers and their birth outcomes.
Lead author of the study and midwifery expert Hannah Dahlen said researchers had looked at all women giving birth in New South Wales in an eight-year period until 2008.
They found those born in India - now the number one migrant group to Australia - had the highest rate of interventions, such as caesereans and episiotomies. They also had the highest number of low birthweight babies (about 2.9 kilograms at full term) and the highest overall perinatal mortality rates.
Professor Dahlen, from the University of Western Sydney, described the findings as ''concerning'' and said it was unclear why there were differences in birth outcomes.
''It is certainly not that Indian women are less capable of a normal birth,'' Professor Dahlen said. ''We need to examine if there is a failure in our health system to provide culturally sensitive and appropriate models of care need to women of multicultural backgrounds.
''We know that if women feel scared, unsupported and isolated, they are much more likely to end up having medical intervention.''
Poor English language skills may impact on the standard of communication and care received, she said, and make women feel less confident in telling clinicians what they wanted.
The research, published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, found Lebanese-born women had the highest stillbirth rates. Gestational diabetes was highest among women born in China and Vietnam.
The study compared Australian-born women with the seven most-common migrant groups - New Zealand, England, China, Vietnam, Lebanon, Philippines and India.
It found Australian women were three times more likely to smoke and also had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies. Teenage pregnancy was lowest among Indian-born women, while Vietnamese-born women had the lowest rates of hypertension.
