Severe anemia and adverse pregnancy outcome

Abstract

Place & Duration of study Patients and Methods Key words Conclusions Results Cohort Study. Frequency of anemia was 69.9% and that of severe anemia was 4.8%. Post-partum hemorrhage occurred in 9.8% of cases as compared to 0.9% of controls (p = 0.013). Frequency of infection of surgical wound was 7.8% in cases and none in controls (p = 0.010). Preterm birth was seen in 23.5% cases and 10.2% controls (p = 0.026). Of the severely anemic mothers, 29.6% babies were low birth weight (p = 0.022) and 27.8% were small for gestational age (p = 0.001), as compared to 14.5% and 8.2% of controls, respectively. Severe maternal anemia carries significant risk of hemorrhage and infection in the mother. It is also associated with preterm birth, low birth weight and small for gestational age infants, as well as low APGAR score and high perinatal mortality. Maternal anemia, Post-partum hemorrhage, Puerperal infection, Abruptio placentae, Preterm birth, Perinatal morbidity. Fifty one pregnant women, admitted for delivery and having severe anemia were studied and compared with 108 non-anemic women of similar demographic features. Maternal and perinatal complications were observed. Pearson, Chi Square and Fischer Exact tests were used to calculate significance of results.