Conditions of attendance on women during preenency and delivery labor as a perinatal risk factor

Abstract

The main problems occurring in the pre-natal period, during labor, delivery and in the immediate attendance given to the new-bom are analysed in the search for risk factors which may interfere in perinatal health. This is a prospective study of a sample of pregnant women and their living and stillborn children, up to the second day of life of these latter. The population consisted of 230 mothers and 232 children. The data were obtained by means of individual interviews with the pregnant women and the collection of the information contained in their later maternal case histories and those of their child/en. The incidence of maternal pathologies which might imply risk to the fetus during pregnancy as a threat to health was low and did not constitute pregnancy risk. The same maybe said with regard to the moment of delivery. The whole period, from internment up to the delivery itself, was characterized by various risks, both of morbidity as of death. Despite the small sample one maternal death was observed and the two main pathologies affecting the new-born were respiratory difficulties and traumas at delivery, consistently greater in Institution 2. The variable low-birth weight as risk associated with the presence of pathologies in the new-born, constituted a lesser risk than that represented by the poor quality of the attendance given to the woman in labor, and demonstrated that both mother and child are exposed to greater risks during the period of internment in hospital.