A Prospective Assessment of the Causes and Complications Associated with Preterm Birth in A Tertiary Care Hospital, Erode

Abstract

Objective(S): To assess the probable causes of pre-term labor (PTL) also to identify the complications associated with PTL. Method(S): This prospective study was conducted over a period of 6 months (April to September 2018), in which 100 antenatal women were admitted in the hospital with ante-partum hemorrhage, premature rupture of membrane, and weak cervix. The complications associated with preemies, gestational age at delivery, causes and neonatal outcome were analyzed and recorded. Resuls: The results revealed a comparatively low incidence of pre-term birth. Pre-term birth was mostly observed between the age group of 20-22 years. Among the cases, the most common causes of pre-term delivery was premature rupture of membrane 24(48%), 12(24%) cases were due to ante-partum hemorrhage. The study showed that nifedipine was able to induce tocolysis for atleast 1 day in 08% of patients. Furthermore, nifedipine was able to induce tocolysis for atleast 2 days in 06% of patients. Conclusion(S): The significant causes of preterm birth found in this study were (i) premature rupture of membrane and (ii) ante-partum hemorrhage respectively. Respiratory distress syndrome was the major complication associated with preemies. Prolongation of delivery for 48 hours by administering tocolytics for deriving the benefit of nifedipine coverage was found to reduce the morbidity due to RDS, but the same did not reduce the overall neonatal mortality below 34 weeks.