Maternal and foetal factors associated with preterm births among mothers delivering at Kiambu level five Hospital, Kenya

The burden of preterm birth is a serious public health concern contributing to neonatal death. The objective of this study was to determine maternal and foetal factors associated with preterm births among mothers delivering at Kiambu Level 5 Hospital. The study design was unmatched case-control. The study was conducted in the maternity ward of Kiambu Level 5 Hospital. The study population was mother–child pair at Kiambu level 5 hospital. Mothers who had term and preterm babies were controls and cases respectively. Sample size was 97 cases and 291 controls. Consecutive and systematic random samplings were used to choose cases and controls respectively. Structured questionnaires and data extraction forms were used to collect the data. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 26 using binary and multivariate logistic regression. Maternal factors that were associated with preterm birth were parity (aOR = 7.04 [95 % CI = 1.66 – 29.82, P = 0.008]), previous preterm (aOR = 12.26 [95 % CI = 1.71 – 87.73, P = 0.013]), premature rupture of membrane (PROM) > 18 h (aOR = 5.319 [95 % CI = 2.320– 12.195, P < 0.001]), antepartum haemorrhage (aOR = 4.264 [95 %CI = 1.517– 11.986, P = 0.001] and preeclampsia (aOR = 7.805 [95 % CI = 3.686– 16.525, P < 0.001]). Foetal factor that was associated with preterm birth was foetal distress (aOR = 6.82, [95 % CI = 1.12–41.42, p = 0.037]) The factors associated with preterm births were parity, previous preterm, premature rupture of membrane, antepartum haemorrhage, preeclampsia and foetal distress. This study recommends routine antenatal screening to identify and follow-up high risk groups, in order to avoid the short- and long-term effects of preterm birth.