Statistical Analysis of Birth Pattern
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
This current study was conducted to assess the impact of various factors like maternal age, parity, gestational age, ante-natal care, anaemia, etc. on the infant’s birth weight. This relationship offers ways and means for initiating public health measures which may help in increasing the birth weight of newborns and reducing their morbidity and mortality.
This current study will be conducted with the sole aim of assessing the impact of:
- Birth weight on maternal age
- Birth weight on Parity
- Birth weight on Gestational age
- Birth weight on Maternal weight
- Birth weight on Maternal height
- And finally, to estimate a model which will be able to predict an infant’s birth weight from the aforementioned factors.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Survival of the newborn is an issue of great concern especially for the developing world. Care for the neonate often receives little attention in maternal and child health programmes. Though various efforts have been made by governments to reduce infant mortality, neonatal mortality keeps increasing. Of the approximately four million global neonatal deaths that occur annually, 98 percent occur in developing countries, where most newborns die at home while they are cared for by mothers, relatives, and traditional birth attendants (WHO, 1996). Almost two-thirds of infant deaths occur in the first month of life, among those, more than two-thirds die in their first week and among those, twothirds die in their first 24 hours after birth (Lawn et al, 2001).
Improvement in the survival of the newborn is dependent on healthcare that spans antenatal, intranatal and postnatal periods, i.e. interventions directed to mothers during pregnancy, labour and delivery have a profound impact on newborn survival especially during the first week of life when three-fourths of neonatal mortality occurs. Moreso, improvements in the survival of the newborn includes the care given to women in the pregnancy period as for example; nutrition of young girls can have an impact on their adult height which in turn can influence outcomes for labour and delivery. Another example would be that the pregnancy folic acid status of the mother can determine the incidence of some congenital abnormalities. Maternal care is therefore not only important for reducing maternal mortality but also neonatal mortality. It is estimated that about 12 million pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa do not get tetanus immunization, however, the presence of a midwife, nurse or doctor at child birth in developed countries is taken for granted (Vinod, 2005).
Households can be regarded as a nation’s health production system, in that they produce health from the local community level to that of the wider society. Newborn care remains a neglected problem and this impacts negatively on MDG4 on child health which pledges to reduce under 5 years mortality by the year 2015, however, the survival of humankind as a whole will be impossible without protecting maternal and newborn lives.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Method
This is a hospital-based study conducted at University of Abuja teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja. The details of all the in-patients were encoded in a computerized medical record system using Dbase IV.
Population
The population was around 1300 to 1500 deliveries take place in a year. There were 2,903 deliveries in this sub-district hospital from January 2000 to December 2001. From the 2,903 deliveries, 2,807 singletons were included in the study for analysis while the sixty-two twin and other cases with missing data were excluded from the study. Information was derived from the case-sheet of mother and new-bom record.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results
Out of the 2,807 new-boms included in the study, 1,513 (54%) were males and 1,294 (46%) were females. The mean weight of the new-boms was 2.68kg. 745 new-boms (26.5%) were, haying, a birth weight of less than 2,500gms (21/2kg). It was seen that 22.7 per cent of the mothers were below the age of 20 years. About 39 per cent of the women were bearing child for the first time. Out of the 2,807 mothers, 2,049 (73%) had received at least one round of ante-natal care during their pregnancy. 35 per cent of the women were found to be anaemic at the time of their delivery. The period of gestation was not ascertained in 51 women. Hence, out of the 2,757 mothers, only 14 per cent of them had delivered their baby in less than 37 weeks of intrauterine life.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
Out of the four factors statistically associated with low birth weight, mother’s age and ANC can be considered immediately for public health action, There is a need to promote right age at marriage (minimum 18 years) and increase the coverage of ANC to cent per cent pregnant women. Period of gestation may be improved through different contraceptive methods of spacing. But in Abuja, these methods are not popular and mothers prefer sterilization rather than spacing the births. Though anaemia was not found to be associated with LBS in the current study, there is a greater necessity to increase the coverage of iron and folic acid prophylaxis to prevent severe anaemia.
LIMITATION
Factors like type of food (veg Vs non-veg), location of residence (rural Vs urban) and frequency of ante-natal care may also contribute to low birth weight occurrence. But this being a hospital-based study, focus was given to the factors which might offer opportunity for initiating public health measure.
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