MATERNAL SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND BIRTH OUTCOMES IN ABUTH SHIKA, ZARIA

Abstract

Low birth weight and other birth outcomes are indicators of both present and future morbidity and mortality of every child. The relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women and the birth outcomes in ABUTH Shika, Zaria was evaluated in this study. A cross-sectional comparative study involving 103 subjects that had live, singleton births within a 28- 42 weeks’ gestation period was carried out. The incidence of babies born with Low birth weight was 21.4%. Their Maternal socio-demographic characteristics were assessed. The socio-demographic characteristics of the pregnant women in ABUTH Shika, Zaria revealed that 90.29% of the pregnant women were between the age range of 15-34 years, 25.24% had no formal education, 43.68% were full time house wives and 21.36% of them earned less than the minimum wage monthly income. Their nutritional status distribution using MUAC revealed that 0% were severely malnourished 14.6% were moderately malnourished while 85.4% were normal. Correlating socio-demographic characteristics with birth outcome; the household income had a significant association with birth outcome (χ2=37.694, p=0.000) those with lower income were more prone to low birth outcome compared to those with higher income. Strong significant correlation was found between maternal height, weight measurements and MUAC with the birth weight of neonates (r=0.690 p=0.000, r=0.593 p=0.003, and r=0.489, p=0.000) respectively. This study has established that socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women are major contributors to their birth outcome. Therefore, this study recommends urgent public health interventions that will reduce the incidence of low birth weight through awareness and other programs that will improve both maternal and child health.