The study aimed at identifying and quantifying determinants of low birth weight (LBW) by following a community based prospective cohort of pregnant women in 45 villages in Pune district. In the 1922 live births born to mothers without a chronic illness, in whom birth weight was available within 24 hours, the cumulative incidence of LBW (< 2500 g) was 29%. The unadjusted relative risks for LBW w...

BACKGROUND According to the World Health Organization, there are over 6.3 million perinatal deaths (PND) a year worldwide. Identifying the factors associated with PND is very helpful in building strategies to improve the care provided to mothers and their babies. OBJECTIVE To investigate the maternal, gestational and neonatal factors associated with PND at two different levels of care. METH...

The cases were all deliveries in the Eoyal Maternity Hospital during one of my short incumbencies as ordinary physician. The women alleged primiparity, and in all there was, in the condition of the hymen, corroborative evidence of the truth of their assertion. The condition of the hymen is not stated in the reports of the cases ; but I am responsible for all .the statements of injuries, the exa...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with inadequacy of prenatal care utilization in urban community. METHODS A cross-sectional study of a systematic sample stratified by maternity hospital, consisting of hospital births in the municipality of São Luís, Brazil, was carried out from March 1997 to February 1998. Socioeconomic and demographic factors, reproductive health, morbidity during pr...

AIMS To identify perinatal risk factors for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and define the risk for each factor. METHODS In this case control study, using logistic regression analysis, all 1127 cases of isolated DDH live born in South Australia in 1986-93 and notified to the South Australian Birth Defects Register were included; controls comprised 150130 live births in South Australi...

Epidemiological investigations of maternal and child health may involve the collection of biological specimens, including cord blood and the placenta; however, the attitudes of pregnant women towards participation in the collection of biological specimens have been studied rarely. We evaluated attitudes towards collection and storage of biological specimens, and determined whether attitudes dif...

A retrospective study in the use of Kielland's Forceps for rotation of the foetal head and mid-cavity delivery in Kandang Kerbau Hospital, Singapore from 1987-1990 is presented. Out of a total of 53,889 singleton births during this period, Kielland's Forceps was used for delivery in 137 (0.25%) patients with an incidence of 0.65% in the primiparae and 0.07% in the multiparae. Primiparity, induc...

INTRODUCTION The level of clinical care and facilities to support the often more viable full-term newborns with normal birth weight compared with preterm/low birth weight newborns that require special care at birth are likely to be attainable in many resource-poor settings. However, the nature of the required care is not evident in current literature. This study therefore set out to determine m...

Caesarean section rates are inexorably rising which has led to the possibility of negative impact on maternal and neonatal health. Present study was aimed to compare the factors associated with caesarean and vaginal births among pregnant women. A retrospective study was conducted in Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar (Punjab, India) during the...

A retrospective case-control study was conducted to investigate the risk factors for pre-eclampsia - including the protective effect of placenta previa - at Medani Maternity Hospital, Sudan. Medical files of the patients during the period 2003-2010 were reviewed for age, parity, education level, prenatal care, placenta previa, and hemoglobin level. Women with pre-eclampsia were the cases, and w...