الملخص

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Preterm Birth (PTB) as “a live birth taking place before the expected 37 weeks of gestation”. Annually, approximately 15 million infants are born prematurely, constituting significantly to infant mortality during the initial four weeks of life, responsible for 40% of deaths among children under the age of five.

Study Objectives

 To determine the incidence and risk factors of preterm labor among women attended Al Gomhori Hospital, Taiz. Over a year (From Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2023).

Study design

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study.

Methods and Materials 

A questionnaire was developed for this study, including details on maternal age, gestational age, pregnancy complications, and infections. This data was collected and entered into SPSS.

Results

The study included 198 women who experienced preterm birth. The total delivery during the study period was 3600 deliveries making the prevalence of preterm birth as 5.5% in the hospital. The majority of participants were aged 20–29 years (37%), more than half of the participants resided in urban areas (53%), and 47% lived in rural areas, with no significant difference (χ² = 0.727, p = 0.394), and housewives were predominant occupation. The mean gravidity was 3.39 ± 2.64 and the mean parity was 1.97 ± 2.20. A history of previous preterm birth was reported by 34.8% of women (χ² = 18.2, p < 0.001), and recurrent miscarriages by 35.3% (χ² = 17.0, p < 0.001).

There were 25% had hypertension, and very few had diabetes (0.5%) or heart disease (1%) (χ² = 277, p < 0.001). Urinary or genital infections were present in 52% of women (χ² = 0.182, p = 0.670), and anaemia in 53% (χ² = 0.505, p = 0.477). Only 5.1% of women smoked and low family income was reported by 58% of participants (χ² = 4.55, p = 0.033). Vaginal bleeding occurred in 16% (χ² = 90.7, p < 0.001), premature rupture of membranes (PROM) in 33% (χ² = 23.4, p < 0.001). BMI distribution was underweight 36%, normal 19%, overweight 24%, and obese 21% (χ² = 13.7, p = 0.003). The mean gestational age at delivery was 31.77 ± 2.45 weeks.

Conclusion

The prevalence of preterm birth observed in this study is lower than that reported in the global studies. The maternal age shows increasing trend from < 20 year up to 29 years and then declined reached the lowest frequency at age ≥ 40 years. There was a slight increase of women residing in urban setting compared to rural residing women with no significant difference.  The majority of women are multiparous, housewives, and had middle socioeconomic status. There was a significant association between previous preterm birth, recurrent miscarriage and occurrence of preterm birth.  Chronic illnesses such as hypertension, DM and heart disease were significantly associated with preterm births. Vaginal bleeding, premature rupture of membranes and low family income and low BMI showed significant link with preterm labor.