TITLE:
Pregnancy Outcomes in Vaharai, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
AUTHORS:
M. Thirukumar
KEYWORDS:
Pregnancy Outcomes, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.8 No.11,
September
4,
2018
ABSTRACT: The outcomes of pregnancy
differ significantly between developing and developed countries. The poor use of prenatal and maternal health services can contribute to this
difference. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted
among all the pregnant mothers who attend to routine antenatal clinic for
booking visit in medical officer health (MOH) clinics at Vaharai MOH area for a
period of one year. This study was aimed to identify the live birth
rate and low birth weight incidence in the studied population and compare these
figures with national figure. Results: This study included 695 pregnant mothers. 70.4%
pregnant mothers attend their first antenatal booking visit before 8 weeks of
gestational age. 611 pregnant mothers reached gestational age of more than 28
weeks. 13.7% pregnant mothers had 4 - 6 antenatal visits while 83.6% mothers
had more than 7 visits. Among those who had body mass index (BMI) measurement,
39.6% mothers had normal BMI and 43.6% pregnant mothers had low BMI, 16.8%
mothers had BMI above the normal range. Among those 611 mothers, 56.8% had
adequate weight gain (>7.5 kg) during their antenatal period, 3 of them had
weight reduction and 11 mothers had not gain weight during their antenatal
period. Majority 85.6% were not anaemic and 14.4% were anaemic. Regarding the
current pregnancy outcome, 86.9% had live birth, 12.1% mothers had miscarriage,
0.9% (6) had intra uterine death (IUD) and 0.1% (1) had Hydatidiform mole. This
study further showed that 22% of the pregnant mothers had their new-borns birth
weight less than 2.5 kg at birth irrespective of their gestational age
(low-birth weight babies). Conclusion: The lower live-birth rate, more
incidence of low birth weight than the national figure of Sri Lanka is seen in
the studied population of Vaharai. More incidence of anaemia, more teen-age
pregnancies, failure to achieve recommended gestational weight gain during
pregnancies despite frequent antenatal care, could be attributed to this
adverse outcome.