Maternal Morbidity Due to Iron Deficiency Anemia in A Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: To determine the presence and severity of iron deficiency anemia among the booked cases and find association of maternal morbidity parameters with presence and severity of iron deficiency anemia Study Design: Comparative cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Gynecology and Obstetrics department, Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan from Jun 2021 to May 2022 Subjects and Methods: a total of 3680 booked cases were included in the study and underwent basic laboratory examination including blood complete picture and ferritin levels at time of initial assessment. Presence and severity of iron deficiency anemia was assessed by consultant obstetricians on the basis of WHO criteria. Patients were followed up till delivery and early post-natal period by research team to look for maternal morbidity parameters. Results: Out of 3680 booked pregnant women included in the study, 1680(45.6%) were primiparous while 2000 (54.4%) were multiparous. Mean age of the women in our study was 32.65±6.758 years. 1297(35.2%) had no anaemia, 1162(31.5%) had mild, 1108(30.1%) had moderate while 113(3.1%) had severe anaemia. Preterm birth, preeclampsia, sepsis and post-partum haemorrhage had statistically Signiant association with presence and severity of anaemia in our target population (p-value<0.001). Conclusion: Iron deficiency anemia was not an uncommon finding among booked cases managed during ante-natal, natal and early post-natal period in our hospital. pre-term birth, pre-eclampsia, post-partum hemorrhage sepsis and risk of post-operative delivery were found significantly more in cases who had anemia, especially moderate to severe anemia.