Elie NKWABONG, Joseph Nelson FOMULU, Below What Hemoglobin Concentration in Pregnancy is there an Increased Risk of Maternal or Fetal Adverse Effects?, Journal of Women's Reproductive Health, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 7-13, ISSN 2381-862X, https://doi.org/10.14302/issn.2381-862X.jwrh-14-625.
(https://oap-researcharticles.org/jwrh/article/169)
Abstract: Objectives: To identify the lowest hemoglobin concentration (Hb) associated with increased risk of materno-fetal complications. Material and methods: This cohort study was conducted in the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital, Cameroon, from March 1st, 2011 to February 28th, 2013. Maternal and fetal outcomes among anemic women (AW) and non-anemic women (NW) were compared. Two hundred and twelve AW (booking Hb <10g/dl) without any chronic diseases, carrying singletons and 212 similar NW (Hb ≥11g/dl) were followed up. Main variables were booking and 36 weeks Hb, complications observed and birth weight (BW). Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0. Fisher exact test and t-test were used for comparison. Level of significance was P<0.05. Results: Mean booking Hb was 8.9 ± 1.1 g/dl among AW against 11.7 ± 0.6 g/dl among NW (P<0.001). Complications of anemia in pregnancy in our series (low BW (RR 7, 95%CI 1.6-30.4), pre-eclampsia (RR 3.3, 95%CI 0.9-11.9) and premature delivery (RR 3, 95%CI 0.6-14.6)) occurred frequently when mean 36 weeks Hb was <9g/dl. Conclusion: Complications were significantly observed when mean Hb was persistently <9g/dl.
Keywords: Anemia in pregnancy- Hemoglobin concentration- Maternal complications- Fetal complications.