High Risk Pregnancy and its Outcome in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: High-risk pregnancy is defined as one which is complicated by factors or factors that adversely affect the pregnancy outcome (maternal, perinatal or both). Early detection and effectivemanagement of high risk pregnancy helps in achieving favorable maternal and perinatal outcomes. This study aimed to find the prevalence of high risk pregnancy and its outcome among pregnant women admitted for delivery in the obstetrics and gynecology department of a tertiary care hospital Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital among high risk pregnant women admitted for delivery using structured proforma, from April 2023 to September 2023 after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee. Convenience sampling was used among pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria. Data was entered in excel and analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics. Point estimate was calculated at 95% Confidence Interval Results: Among 350 deliveries, high risk pregnancy was seen in 91 (26%) (16.15-32.00, 95% Confidence Interval). The high risk factors were previous history of cesarean section 25 (27.47 %) followed by hypothyroidism 19 (20.87%) and gestational diabetes mellitus 15 (16.48%). Out of 90 high risk pregnancy, 84 (92.30%) had term delivery. Lower segment cesarean section was done in 69 (75.82%) patients of which 26 (28.57%) underwent emergency cesarean section. The total number of births among high risk preganancies were 93 with two sets of twin births. A total of 13 (13.97%) of the babies had low-birth weight. Conclusions: The prevalence of high risk pregnancy was found to be similar as compared to studies done in similar settings.