ANEMIA IN PREGNANCY; A CAUSE OF LOW NEONATAL BIRTH WEIGHT

Objective: The study aims to determine relationship of anemia n pregnancy with the birth weight of new born. Comparison between anemic and non-anemic pregnant females was done. Methodology: The study design is comparative, cross sectional conducted at Lady Aitchison hospital, Lahore from October 2013 to May 2014. The permission was granted to authors from the hospital ethical committee. Total 200 patients were enrolled and were stratified into two groups, consisting of 100 patients each. Patients with single fetus at term and till gravida 5 were included in study while those suffering from other causes of low birth weight like, grand multipara, multiple pregnancies, intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR), preterm and any other co-morbidity which can possibly lead to low birth weight were excluded. Maternal complete blood count was performed. Blood sample was collected at the time of enrollment. Data was collected on a pre-designed form after taking informed written consent. Data analysis was done by using SPSS version 10. Results: The mean birth weight of newborns of anemic mothers was 2338 266 grams while in non-anemic mothers birth weight was 3081307 grams. The p value was 0.000. The patients in anemic group were stratified into mild, moderate and severe which were 25%, 65% and 10% respectively. The moderately anemic mothers had 2184  89 grams birth weight of their newborn while severely anemics had 199073 grams, p value was 0.000. Conclusion: The study shows that mothers with anemia i.e. hemoglobin level less than 11 g/dl had low birth weight babies while those with HB equals or more than 11g/dl had normal birth weight babies. Key Words: Anemia, Pregnancy, Birth weight, Neonate.