Effects of Third Trimester Maternal Hemoglobin Upon Newborn Anthropometry.

Introduction: Maternal anemia during pregnancy can lead to poor fetal outcome as risks of morbidity and mortality is increased. Materials and Methods: All Singleton pregnancies delivered in MMIMSR, Mullana, Ambala from 5 April 2012 to 5 October 2012 fulfilling the criteria were included. The pregnant mothers were grouped into 4 categories according to the corresponding hemoglobin concentration: normal (=or>11), mild (10.9-9.0g/dl), moderate (8.9-7.0 g/dl), and severe anemia (less than 7 g/dl). Results: Out of 334 pregnant women included in the study 249 (74.6%) were found to be anemic. Among anemic mothers 9 had severe (2.7%), 51 had moderate (15.3%) and 189 had mild (56.6) anemia. The anthropometric measurements (birth weight, length, chest circumference, head circumference) with decreasing severity of anemia showed statistically significant difference (p = 0.000, p = 0.000, p = 0.017, p = 0.001) respectively. It was seen that as the number of pregnancies (gravida) increases the severity of anemia increases with each pregnancy. Conclusion: Anemia during pregnancy negatively affected the anthropometric measurements of a newborn and severe anemia had significant negative effect on neonatal anthropometric measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]