Impact of Short Birth Spacing on Maternal Anemia at District Head Quarters Hospital Nankana Sahib

Short birth intervals are independently associated with increased risk of adverse maternal, perinatal, infant and child outcomes. Maternal anemia is one of the commonest complications of short birth spacing that further can enhance the risk of poor fetal and maternal outcome. Objective: To determine the effect of short birth spacing on maternal anemia at District Headquarters Hospital Nankana Sahib. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was done at Gynecology and obstetrics Department of District Headquarters Hospital Nankana sahib. A total of 135 pregnant women of 18 to 40 years’ age, 18 to 59 months of inter-pregnancy intervals were included. All the demographic and clinical data was collected according to predesigned questionnaire. Results: In this study all females were anemic, whereas there were 57(42.22%) females had mild anemia, 61(45.19%) females had moderate and 17(12.59%) females had severe anemia. There was association between severity of Hb levels with higher age group, lower socioeconomic status, previous history of vaginal + C-section and females with third trimester. Moreover, there was significantly negative correlation between Hb levels and higher gravida, p-value ≤ 0.05. Conclusions: Itis concluded from the results of our study that all mothers had different degrees of anemia. There was a statistically significant association between severity of Hb levels with higher age group, lower socioeconomic status, previous history of vaginal + C-section and females with third trimester (p < 0.05). While, no significant association and a negative correlation was found between Hb levels and multigravida (r = - 0.181 & p = 0.035).