Severe Maternal Anemia and Neonatal Outcome

Anemia is one of the most prevalent nutritional deficiency problems afflicting pregnant women. Anemia that complicates pregnancy threatens the life of both mother and fetus. Among pregnant women the prevalence of anemia was four fold higher in developing countries as compared to the developed countries. In India 40 – 90 % of the pregnant women are anemic. Most of the articles have reported an adverse pregnancy outcome related to anemia. Of late, reports are emerging suggesting anemia could be indeed beneficial. During the last two decades significant knowledge has been gained about the effects of iron deficiency anemia on work capacity, work performance, muscle function, resistance to infection. However, information on the effects of maternal anemia during pregnancy on the fetal outcome has been meager and conflicting. Hence we conducted a study to look into these aspects. Women were divided into cases and controls based on the hemoglobin levels. Those with Hb% level <7gm will be cases and those with >10g/dl will be controls. The mean birth weight and intra-uterine fetal demise in anemic and non anemic groups were compared using Student ‘t’ test. Proportions were compared using ‘chi square’ test. Perinatal outcomes included preterm delivery, low birth weight (LBW) at delivery,intrauterine growth restriction, perinatal mortality, APGAR score at 1 and 5 min, intrauterine foetal demise (IUD).The risk of preterm delivery and LBW among exposed group was 1.7 times and 2.8 times higheramong anaemic women, respectively. Risk of IUGR was 2 times higher compared to the nonanemic groups. Newborns of anaemic mothers had 1.6 times increased risk ofhaving an APGAR score of <5 at 1 min and the risk of IUD was 1.8 times higher for anaemic women. Low maternal haemoglobin levels are associated with increased risk of preterm delivery, LBW babies, APGAR score <5 at 1 min and IUD.