A retrospective study of the health profile of neonates of mothers with anemia in pregnancy and pregnancy induced hypertension in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Our study assessed the health profile of neonates in relation to anemia in pregnancy and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). This was a retrospective study where a systematic random sampling technique was used to select a total of 1046 case records of pregnant women registered for ante-natal care at Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria, between 2005 and 2009. Socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers, prevalence of anemia and PIH, and neonatal health profile were obtained from the case records and were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson product moment correlation was used to show the relationship (P≤0.05) between maternal complications and neonatal health profile. Majority (68.8%) of the mothers had anemia and 6.7 % had PIH. Majority (97.12%) of the neonates were live births and 2.88% of the neonates were still births, 65.4% of the women with still birth pregnancy outcome had anemia, and 34.6% had PIH. Majority (74%) of the neonates had birth weight within normal range (2.5-4.0 kg) and majority (68%) had normal Apgar score at 5 min of birth (7- 10). A positive correlation existed between the packed cell volume of the mother and the birth weight of the neonates (r=0.740, P≤0.05). A negative correlation existed between the incidence of PIH and the birth weight of the neonates (r=–0.480, P≤0.05). We conclude that nutritional and health care intervention programmes for pregnant women should be intensified especially during ante-natal visits to hospitals.