Intrapartum stillbirth, associated risk factors and delays in a tertiary care hospital

Simrat Kaur; Radhika Gupta; B.R.Bhagat; Shashi Gupta

Volume : IX, Issue : VII, July - 2019

Intrapartum stillbirth, associated risk factors and delays in a tertiary care hospital

Simrat Kaur, Radhika Gupta, B. R. Bhagat, Shashi Gupta

Abstract :

Background: Each year, 1.2 million intrapartum stillbirths occur globally. An understanding of the risk factors associated with intrapartum stillbirth will facilitate the development of preventative strategies to reduce the associated burden of death. This study was conducted in a tertiary–care setting with the aim to identify risk factors associated with intrapartum stillbirth. Methods: This was an observational prospective study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, S.M.G.S. Hospital, Jammu over a period of one year i.e from September 2017 to August 2018 after approval from the Hospital Ethical Committee. Subjects were patients coming to the hospital with documented IUD and patients with stillbirth occurring during the hospital stay, with gestational age>22 weeks and birth weight >500gm. Results: In our study, we observed that a total of 22,723 deliveries occurred in the hospital out of which 800 were stillbirths; stillbirth rate was found to be 35.20 per 1000 births.The mean age of patients was 26.57±4.65years . Majority of the patients in the study were primigravida (43.13%). Prematurity was the most common intranatal risk factor (8.98%) followed by auption (6.86%) and acute fetal distress(AFD) (6.11%). Conclusions: Being born preterm with a small–for–gestational age was associated with the highest risk for intrapartum stillbirth. The most common delay associated with intrapartum stillbirth was in reaching the hospital.