Maternal anaemia and its impact on perinatal outcome in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.

Maternal anaemia is a common problem in pregnancy, particularly in developing countries. We investigated the relationship between maternal anaemia and perinatal outcome in a cohort of 629 pregnant women from October 2001 to 2002. Of these, 313 were anaemic (haemoglobin < 11 g/L). Perinatal outcomes included preterm delivery, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, perinatal death, low Apgar scores and intrauterine fetal death. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. The risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight among the anaemic women was 4 and 1.9 times more respectively than the non-anaemic women. The neonates of anaemic women also had 1.8 times increased risk having low Apgar scores at 1 minute and there was a 3.7 greater risk of intrauterine fetal death among the anaemic women than the non-anaemic women.