Impact of antenatal care on maternal morbidity in three military hospitals of punjab, pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact of antenatal care on maternal morbidity. Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Obstetric Departments of three military hospitals in Northern Punjab cities of Rawalpindi, Jehlum and Mangla, from Jan to Mar 2019. Methodology: Data of all mothers who gave live births in the selected military hospitals were collected. These mothers were classified as booked and unbooked on the basis of number of antenatal care visits. Maternal morbidities and complications of pregnancy were recorded. The data were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. Results: In our study, 254 (8.8%) of mothers were unbooked, 2273 (78.8%) were partially booked and 358 (12.4%) were booked. 894 (31%) mothers did not have any co-morbidity while 1991 (69%) mother had co-morbidity. Out of 749 (27.5%) mothers had anaemia, 869 (30.1%) had hypertension, 141 (30.1%) had diabetes mellitus, 24 (0.8%) cardiac disease, 39 (1.4%) had tuber-culosis, 9 (0.3%) had liver disease 13 (0.5%) had kidney disease, 69 (2.4%) had allergies while 33 (1.1%) had other diseases. These complications were significantly greater in unbooked patients as compared to booked patients (p<0.001) Out of total 2885 mothers who gave live births in three military hospitals, only one (0.034%) mother died (who was unbooked) in Jhelum Hospital. Its Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) was 34.66 per 100,000 live births. Conclusion: In our study population anemia, hypertension and diabetes were the most common comorbidities in expecting mothers. Unbooked mothers had more morbidities and complications of pregnancy than booked mothers. Furthermore, we found antenatal care to be beneficial in the prevention of these comorbidities and complications.