Abstract: Background: Anaemia with intra uterine growth restriction (IUGR) may aggravate adverse neonatal outcomes like preterm birth, low birth weight, high perinatal morbidity and mortality along with negative long-term sequelae.
Objective: The objective of this study was to find an association between maternal anaemia in clinically diagnosed IUGR pregnancies with neonatal outcomes.
Materials and methods: A prospective study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in which one hundred and twenty consecutive clinically suspected cases of singleton IUGR pregnancies at 34-40 weeks of gestation were enrolled. Their sociodemographic profile and hemoglobin levels were recorded. A descriptive analysis of the data was performed.
Results: Of 120 study subjects with IUGR at 34-40 weeks, 68% were anaemic, (47% had mild, 20% had moderate, 1% had severe anaemia) while 32% were not anaemic. Significantly, the ratio of anaemic to non anaemic in antenatal IUGR pregnancies was 2.1:1. A birth weight of less than 2.5 kgs was recorded in 94.44% of pregnancies with moderate anaemia and 73.68% pregnancies with mild anaemia. Forty-three babies required admission to NICU with a duration of 2-7 days of which 46.51% (n=20)) were born to mothers with Hb less than 11g/dl.
Conclusion: Moderate to severe anaemia in IUGR may increase the chances of low birth weight and adverse neonatal outcomes but larger studies with standardized definitions and measurements of exposure outcomes to bring about uniformity are required to determine an accurate assessment of association between low maternal hemoglobin and IUGR.
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