title: Obstetric impact of anaemia in pregnant women in United Arab Emirates.
abstract: Our objective was to determine the effect of anaemia during pregnancy on maternal and perinatal outcome. A retrospective case-control study was conduced on 100 anaemic (haemoglobin level < 11g/dl) and 100 non-anaemic, pregnant women with singleton pregnancies who received antenatal care and delivered vaginally in our hospital. The maternal characteristics of both groups were not different. The causes of anaemia were iron deficiency (91%), beta-thalassaemia trait (8%) and folate deficiency (1%). There was no significant difference in the mean gestational age at delivery (38.9 +/- 2.0 vs 39.6 +/- 1.6 weeks), 5-minute Apgar score (7.8 +/- 0.8 vs 7.9 +/- 0.1) and birth weight (3,150 +/- 530 vs 3,230 +/- 430 g) between both groups. Post-partum haemorrhage (3%), pre-term delivery (4%) and fetal growth restriction (6%) were more frequent in anaemic women but the difference was not significant. Anaemia, therefore, had no significant obstetric adverse effects in our pregnant hospital-population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Al-Ain Hospital, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: O I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Fareh
authors.forename: D E E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Rizk
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000740:Anemia; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011250:Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014479:United Arab Emirates