Maternal Anaemia, Pregnancy Complications and Birth Outcome: Evidences from North-East India

Anaemia is a common disorder among women in India mostly during reproductive time period where about 55 percent women aged between 1549 have anaemia because of low dietary habit and other related causes. Anaemia prevalence is highest among pregnant women due to high iron demands of growth of foetus at the time of pregnancy. The paper tries to examine the causes and consequences of anaemia among pregnant women with birth outcomes and complications by using National Family Health Survey-III and multivariate and bivariate analysis were performed. Finding shows that higher risks of poor pregnancy outcome by anaemic women like premature birth, low weight at birth and termination of pregnancy. There is a U-shape relationship existing between maternal haemoglobin concentration and poor birth outcomes leading to higher risk to deliver premature birth. The study also reveals that prevalence of anaemia exists because of poor dietary habit and other lifestyle behaviour.