Abstrakt

Prevalence and factors associated with pre-term delivery at ad-din women’s medical college and hospital.

J Biswas*, M Sarkar

Background: Pre-term birth is the leading cause of newborn deaths and second leading cause of death in children under five years old. Pre-term birth defines as any birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation or fewer than 259 days since the 1st day of women’s last menstrual period. Of the estimated 130 million babies born each year globally, approximately 15 million are born preterm. WHO estimates the prevalence of pre-term deliveries to be 5-18% across 184 countries of the World. Prematurity is a major hindrance to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)-4 target given its high contribution to neonatal mortality. The survival chances of babies born preterm vary significantly depending on where they are born. The risk of neonatal death due to complications of preterm birth is at least 12 times higher for an African baby than for a European baby. Though most countries especially the low and middle income one’s lack reliable data on preterm birth, nearly all of those with reliable trend data show an increase in preterm birth rates over the past 20 years. Indeed, all but 3 out of 65 countries in the world with reliable trend show an increase in preterm birth rates in the last 20 years. Significant progress has been made in the care of premature infants but not in reducing the prevalence of preterm birth which is generally on the rise. Causes of preterm birth are unknown in over 50% of spontaneous preterm labor while mechanisms of preterm labor remain poorly understood. Identifying and understanding the risk factors for preterm birth has the potential to help address this problem. Bangladesh like other most developing countries lacks reliable data on the burden of preterm delivery. Ad-Din Women’s Medical College and Hospital is the largest regional referral and handles many high risk pregnancies some of which result in preterm birth. Locally, few studies have looked at the prevalence of pre-term deliveries and factors associated with it. This study determined the prevalence of preterm birth and factors associated with preterm deliveries at Ad-Din Women’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangladesh.