Relationship between maternal hemoglobin and Perinatal outcome

Objective: To Study the Relationship between Maternal Hemoglobin and Perinatal outcome in a cohort of 860 pregnant women and to highlight the importance of antenatal care regarding maternal health and fetal outcome. Methods: All Singleton pregnancies delivering at Pakistan Railway Hospital Rawalpindi from January 2004 to December 2005 that fulfilled the required criteria were included. Results: Out of the 860 patients, 402 were anemic (<11gm/dl) and 458 were non anemic. Perinatal outcome included preterm delivery, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, perinatal death, low apgr scores and intrauterine fetal deaths. Risk of preterm and Low birth weight among anemic women was 3.4 and 1.8 times more than non anaemic women. The neonates of anemic woman also had 1.7 times increased risk of having low Apgar scores at 1 min. Among anemic women there was 2.2 times greater risk of intrauterine fetal death than the non-anemic women. Conclusion: Regular antenatal care from first trimester has a vital role in assessing and managing maternal anemia timely and it directly affects the perinatal outcome. The patients with anemia have also higher risk of having low birth weight, preterm births and intra uterine fetal death. (Rawal Med J 2007;32:102-104).