RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Stillbirths are indicators of the quality of obstetrics care in health systems. Stillbirth rates and their associating factors vary by socio-economic and geographical settings. Published data on stillbirths and their associating factors in the Volta Region of Ghana are limited. This limits understanding of local factors that must be considered in designing appropriate interventions to mitigate the occurrence of stillbirths. This study determined the incidence of stillbirths and associated factors among deliveries at Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH) and contributes to understanding the consistent high stillbirths in the country and potentially in other low-resourced settings in sub-Saharan Africa. METHOD: This was a prospective cohort study involving pregnant women admitted for delivery at HTH between October 2019 and March 2020. Data on socio-demographic characteristics such as age and employment, obstetric factors including gestational age at delivery and delivery outcomes like birthweight were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire. The primary outcome was the incidence of stillbirths at the facility. Summary statistics were reported as frequencies, percentages and means. Logistic regression methods were used to assess for association between stillbirths and independent variables including age and birthweight. Odds ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals and associations with p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 687 women and their 702 newborns contributed data for analysis. The mean age (SD) was 29.3 (6.3) years and close to two-thirds had had at least one delivery previously. Overall stillbirth incidence was 31.3 per 1000 births. Of the 22 stillbirths, 17 were antepartum. Pre-eclampsia was the most common hypertensive disorder of pregnancy observed (49.3%, 33/67). Among others, less than 3 antenatal visits and low birthweight increased the odds of stillbirths in the bivariate analysis. In the final multivariate model, pregnancy and delivery at 28-34 weeks gestation [AOR 9.37(95% CI 1.18-74.53); p = 0.034] and induction of labour [AOR 11.06 (95% CI 3.10-39.42); p < 0.001] remained significantly associated with stillbirths. CONCLUSION: Stillbirth incidence was 31.3 per 1000 births with more than half being antepartum stillbirths. Pregnancy/delivery at 28-34 weeks' gestation increased the odds of a stillbirth. Improving the quality of antenatal services, ensuring adherence to evidence-based protocols, accurate and prompt diagnosis and timely interventions of medical conditions in pregnancy particularly at 28-34 weeks' gestation could reduce incidence of stillbirths.
Asunto(s)
Instituciones de Salud , Mortinato , Embarazo , Femenino , Recién Nacido , Humanos , Adulto , Mortinato/epidemiología , Peso al Nacer , Ghana/epidemiología , Incidencia , Estudios ProspectivosRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Caesarean sections (CS) feature prominently in obstetric care and have impacted positively on maternal / neonatal outcomes globally including Ghana. However, in spite of documented increasing CS rates in the country, there are no studies assessing the adequacy of post-CS pain control. This study assessed the adequacy of post-CS pain management as well as factors influencing this outcome. Additionally, post-CS analgesia prescription and serving habits of doctors and nurses were also described to help fill existing knowledge gaps. METHODS: Pain scores of 400 randomly selected and consenting post-CS women at a tertiary facility in Ghana were assessed at 6-12 hours post-CS at rest and with movement and at 24-36 hours post-CS with movement using a validated visual analog scale (VAS) from February 1, 2015 to April 8, 2015. Participant characteristics including age, marital status and duration of CS were obtained using pretested questionnaires and patient records review. Descriptive statistics were presented as frequencies and proportions. Associations between background characteristics and the outcome variables of adequacy of pain control at 6-12 hours post-CS at rest and with movement and at 24-36 hours post-CS with movement were analysed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests and logistic regression methods. Adequate pain control was defined as VAS scores ≤5. RESULTS: At 6-12 hours post-CS (at rest), equal proportions of participants had adequate and inadequate pain control (50.1% vrs 49.9%). Over the same time period but with movement, pain control was deemed inadequate in 93% of respondents (369/396). Women who had one previous surgery [OR 0.47 95%CI 0.27, 0.82; p = 0.008] and those whose CS lasted longer than 45 mins [OR 0.39 95% CI 0.24, 0.62; p<0.001] had lower odds of reporting adequate pain control. Women prescribed 12-hourly and 8-hourly doses of pethidine had only 23.5% (12/51) and 10.3% (3/29) served as prescribed respectively. At 24-36 hours post CS, adequate pain control was reported by 85.3% (326/382) of participants. CONCLUSIONS: Pain management was deemed inadequate within the first 12 hours post-CS with potential implications for early mother-child interaction. Appreciable numbers of participants did not have their analgesics served as prescribed. Adjunct pain control measures should be explored and healthcare workers must be encouraged to pay more attention to patients' pain relief needs.