Pregnancy and labor of grand multiparous Sudanese women.

This study was part of an evaluation of maternity performance during the period 1975-1979 in the three major hospitals in Khartoum, Sudan. The larger study population consisted of 8858 patients who delivered in those hospitals; 3130 of them had five or more children. The obstetric complications and the fetal outcome were investigated, and comparisons were made between groups according to parity. There was a high rate of antenatal complications, such as anemia, antepartum hemorrhage and postpartum hemorrhage, among the grand multiparous patients. The stillbirth rate and neonatal mortality were higher for grand multiparous women than for the others.