Lata1, Archana Sinha, Dipali Prasad, Sadia Perween, Urvashi Mishra, Swet Nisha, Sneh Kiran
BACKGROUND: Post-dated pregnancy is defined as one which has crossed expected date of delivery. Incidence is up to 10% of all pregnancies and carries increased risk to mother and foetus. Prolonged pregnancy has always been regarded as a highâ??risk condition because perinatal morbidity and mortality is known to rise. The interest in postdatism has been recent and the management is controversial. We wanted to analyse the perinatal and maternal outcome of post-dated pregnancies.
METHODS: Data was collected retrospectively from hospital records of all patients delivering after 40 weeks of gestation in our hospital and was collected till the sample size of 100 was reached. Details including demographic profile, booking status, period of gestation in weeks, method of induction of labour (if done), mode of delivery, maternal and neonatal complications if any, were noted. Microsoft excel was used for data entry and data was analysed using SPSS 16. Chi square test was used as the test of significance. This is a retrospective observational study done in June 2018 and included 100 post-dated pregnancies from Jan 2016 to June 2018 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna.
RESULTS: The incidence of post-dated pregnancy was 9.22% at our centre. Majority of the patients (87%) were ≤30 years age. 71% patients were primigravida. Most of the patients (64%) were unbooked. As the gestational age increased from 40-41 weeks to 41 weeks 1 day and above, the percentage of patients undergoing LSCS increased. More number of patients had to be induced as the gestational age crossed 41 weeks. Rate of LSCS was higher in the group where induction of labour was done. Common indications being failure of induction, non-progress of labour and foetal distress. Complications included increased NICU admission rates, birth asphyxia, macrosomia, shoulder dystocia, increased LSCS rates, oligohydramnios, etc.
CONCLUSIONS: Postdated pregnancy is associated with both, maternal and foetal complications. Timing of induction has to be decided carefully, as early induction leads to failure and increased rates of LSCS, while late induction leads to increased foetal complications.
