TITLE:
Outcome of Maternal Anaemia on Cord Haemoglobin of the Newborn in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Justina Omoikhefe Alegbeleye, Dagogo Semenitari Abam, Ngozi Clare Orazulike
KEYWORDS:
Maternal Haemoglobin, Cord Blood Haemoglobin, Perinatal Outcome, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.8 No.5,
May
15,
2020
ABSTRACT: Background: Anaemia is a common medical disorder in pregnancy especially in
developing countries. Iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy may be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes Objectives: Todetermine the cord blood haemoglobin and
the correlation between maternal haemoglobin concentration
and perinatal outcome at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective
cross-sectional study of 155 pregnant women who presented at the labour ward of
the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from October 1, 2018 to December
31, 2018. Blood sample was collected from the women in labour into ethylenediamine
tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) bottles, red blood cell haemoglobin was determined. Umbilical cord blood sample was also
collected at delivery and red cell
haemoglobin was done. Socio-demographic characteristics, risk factors and perinatal outcome were obtained, entered into a
spreadsheet and analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Bivariate
logistic regression analysis was performed for multivariate analysis and
statistical significance was considered at p Results: The mean age of the women was 31.08 ± 4.39 years, the mean maternal
haemoglobin concentration was 11.54 ± 1.86 g/dl while the mean umbilical cord
haemoglobin concentration was 12.92 ± 1.92 g/dl. Majority (86.45%) of the women were compliant with the prescribed haematinics. Moderate anaemia was
observed in 17.42% of the women, followed by mild anaemia (15.48%) and severe anaemia (1.29%) respectively. Maternal complications were observed in 24.5% of women. There was a
significant association between maternal
haemoglobin concentration and cord blood haemoglobin concentration (p = 0.001). However, the study did
not show an association between parity, mode of delivery, birth weight, Apgar
scores, gestational age and maternal haemoglobin concentration (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The mean Haemoglobin
in our newborns was less than previously reported values. Cord blood haemoglobin
decreases significantly with decreasing maternal haemoglobin, thus there
is a linear relationship between maternal and cord blood haemoglobin.