TITLE:
Hitches in Antenatal Screening in Vaharai, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
AUTHORS:
Markandu Thirukumar
KEYWORDS:
Anemia, Basic Investigations, Booking Visit, Batticaloa
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
25,
2018
ABSTRACT: Women in developing countries are at more risk for pregnancy-related
complications than their counterpart of developed countries. However, many of
the complications are preventable with good quality antenatal care (ANC). This
descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among all the pregnant mothers
who attend to routine antenatal clinic for booking visit at Vaharai, Batticaloa
district of Sri Lanka during the time periods of 2015-2016. This study included
695 pregnant mothers. Among them majority were (n = 661;
95.1%) Tamil and belong to (n = 587; 84.5%) average age of
19 to 35 years. Majority of pregnant mothers studied up to grade eleven (GCE
O/L) (n = 484; 69.6%). Among them
14.4% were identified as anaemic. Among anaemic mothers 8.4% were mild, 5.2%
were moderate & 0.8% severe anaemic. There was no statistically significant
difference between ethnicity, parity of pregnant mothers, & their
respective haemoglobin levels. Most pregnant mothers belong to (n = 338; 48.6%) blood group O and majority were Rh
positive (n = 603; 86.8%). 90.6% of pregnant
mothers underwent VDRL test and none was positive. This study shows that about
15% of first trimester pregnant mothers were anemic. Nutritional interventions
for pre-pregnant women and educating pregnant women on prevention of anaemia,
are recommended. Measures must also be taken to decrease teen age marriages.