Anemia during pregnancy: Most preventable yet most prevalent

Abstract

Objective: To study the relationship between maternal hemoglobin and maternal and perinatal outcomes in a cohort of 1200 women, and to highlight the importance of antenatal care to improve maternal health, maternal and fetal outcome. Method: All singleton pregnancies delivering at NKPSIMS, from January 2009 to December 2009 that fulfilled the required criteria were included. Results: Out of 1200 women, 787 were anemic (67.2%) < 11 gm of Hb and 413 were nonanemic. Perinatal outcome included preterm delivery, birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, perinatal death, low Apgar scores and intrauterine fetal death. Risk of preterm and low birth weight among anemic women was 4.2 times and 1.8 times more than nonanemic women. The neonates of anemic women had 1.8 times more risk of low Apgar scores at 1 minute. Among anemic women there was 2.4 times greater risk of intrauterine fetal death than nonanemic women. The women with anemia had 2.5 times higher incidence of PPH than nonanemic women. Puerperal complications were 2.5 times more in anemic women than nonanemic women. Conclusions: Regular patient education by imparting proper knowledge regarding iron-rich foods, food fortification, implementation of anemia prophylaxis program from adolescence, regular antenatal care from 1st trimester has a vital role in assessing and managing maternal anemia timely, and it directly affects the perinatal outcome. The patients with anemia have higher risk of having low birth weight, preterm birth and Intrauterine fetal death (Rawalmeds 2007,32:102:101:104).