QUALITATIVE KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT OF PREGNANT WOMEN ON PRETERM BIRTH IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

Preterm birth is the birth occurring after 20 weeks and before 37 weeks of gestation. Premature birth has been associated with several factors such as history of preterm birth, anemia, high catecholamine levels in the maternal urine, tobacco consumption, Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM), High Blood Pressure (HBP), vaginal bleeding, inter gestational interval of ≤ 1 year, urinary tract infection (UTI), lack of prenatal care, inadequate prenatal care, maternal age less than 20 years, maternal age over 35 years, oligohydramnios, history of induced abortion, preeclampsia, twin pregnancy and advanced maternal age. The objective of the present research is to assess the knowledge of pregnant women between 6 and 8 months on preterm birth in a tertiary care hospital, Erode. The study ventures to determine the factors behind the preterm birth and also to evaluate the demographic characteristics of the preterm mothers and their preterm infants. It was a prospective observational study conducted over a period of 6 months in 250 pregnant women. The study included pregnant women above 24 weeks of gestation, because the survival rate of the babies is about 35-50% according to the fetal viability study conducted in 2005 and excluded all pregnant women below 24 weeks of gestation. We have randomly selected 220 pregnant women for assessment of knowledge about preterm birth. After knowledge assessment we followed the cases during the study period. During follow up period, 20 women had preterm birth, 175 women had term birth and 25 women were under follow up. By the end of the study, we separately analyzed thirty preterm birth cases to find out the factors behind the preterm birth. The preterm birth had occurred mostly between 32 and 35 weeks of gestation. Out of fifty preterm cases, 5(10%) mothers had preterm labour between 20-24 weeks of gestation, 7(14%) mothers had preterm labour between 25-28 weeks of gestation, another 10(20%) mothers had preterm labour between 29-31 weeks of gestation, 20(40%) mothers had preterm labour between 32-35 weeks of gestation, and 8(16%) mothers had preterm labour between 35-37 weeks of gestation respectively. In our study, prenatal outcome of low birth weight was seen in 45(90%) preterm babies and 5(10%) babies having above low birth weight (LBW > 2500 grams). Our study concluded that pregnant women possessed inadequate knowledge about preterm birth. So health education should be provided during antenatal visits in prenatal wards and in outpatient visit in the hospital which would be beneficial and helpful to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity.