Hema Divakar 1 , Priti Kumar 2 , Kavita Bansal 3 , Pragya Tripathi 4 , Shelly Dutta 5 , Isaac Manyonda 6
BACKGROUND The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of anaemia after delivery and highlight the need for postpartum anaemia services in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS Women were recruited at admission for delivery; excluded were mothers with non-iron-deficiency anaemia, haematological disease or who had preterm deliveries. Hb levels were measured at admission for delivery and 24-hours postpartum. An estimate of the number of women with Hb less than 10 g/dL that would qualify for parenteral iron therapy was made. Design- Multicenter study. Setting- Obstetric departments of semi-urban, rural and urban hospitals in India. Population- Women ≥18 years old irrespective of date of admission and mode of delivery. RESULTS 221 (67.03%) women had vaginal births, while 466 (32.96%) women had C-sections. The prevalence of severe anaemia, moderate anaemia and mild anaemia increased between the two study points from 0.43% to 1.74% (McNemar=0.021), 8.01% to 11.21% (McNemar=0.0021) and 60.12% to 69.58% (McNemar <0.001), respectively. The proportion of women who did not have anaemia decreased from 31.44% to 17.47% (McNemar <0.001). Hb levels at 24 hours postpartum were lower in 553 women (80.49%). CONCLUSION We showed that the prevalence of mild, moderate and severe anaemia increase after delivery. Furthermore, vaginal birth and C-section are associated with decreases in Hb. The study highlights the need to institutionalise postpartum anaemia correction services in India to reduce postpartum anaemia prevalence and improve the quality of maternal care. Tweetable abstract- The prevalence of mild, moderate and severe anaemia increase after vaginal birth or C-section.
