Still births at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital: Characteristics of parents, pregnancy and labour
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Date
2004-03
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Ghana Medical Journal
Abstract
As part of an autopsy study of 93 still births out of
a total of 3,761 deliveries in Korle-Bu Teaching
Hospital (KBTH) information was collected on the
characteristics of the parents and the pregnancy
which resulted in the still births to determine the
factors that influenced the outcome of the pregnancies.
Analysis of the data obtained revealed
important factors that influenced the outcome of
these pregnancies and reflected on inadequacies of
maternal services in the Accra metropolis and
probably the whole of the country.
Low maternal educational level, low socioeconomic
status of the families, late commencement
and irregular antenatal attendance were present
in majority of the mothers. Intra-partum foetal
death was low, 17% (16 out of 93) while antenatal
foetal death was 83% (73 out of 93). The high
ante-partum foetal death may be a reflection of
inadequate maternal services in the Accra
metropolis. About half of the pregnancies studied,
46 out of 93, were unplanned out of which 10 were
contraception failures. Hypertension was the most
common pre-existing maternal complication while
the most common maternal complication was maternal
pyrexia followed by anteparll1m haemorrhage
and gestational hypertension with and without
other features of pre-eclampsia. Measures to
reduce late foetal loss and improve antenatal care
and coverage are suggested.
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Journal Article
Keywords
StillbIrth, Labour pregnancy complication, prenatal care, Ghana