A recent study by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Perinatal Mortality Research Unit at Tygerberg Hospital found that 39% of pregnant women smoked cigarettes.1 Smoking in pregnancy is clearly recognised in the literature as an important, dose-related, preventable risk factor for poor perinatal outcome.2 Aprevious MRC finding that 47% of South African coloured women smoke during pregnancy3 sta...

UNLABELLED WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT?: Diffusion-weighted MRI has demonstrated changes in the corpus callosum of term neonates with perinatal asphyxia. The severity of cerebral changes demonstrated using diffusion-weighted MRI is difficult to assess without measuring values of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC). WHAT IS NEW?: ADC values of the anterior part of the corpus callosum a...

CONTEXT Pregnancy - induced hypertension/eclampsia is a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. There have been very few studies focused on early onset pregnancy induced hypertension/eclampsia in Nigerian women. OBJECTIVES To determine the incidence, clinical features and outcome of cases of early onset pregnancy-induced hypertension /eclampsia in a Nigerian ...

antedates pregnancy, is a cause of increased perinatal mortality1-3 while the role of gestational diabetes in perinatal mortality remains doubtful.4 Although the multidisciplinary approach to the management of these diabetic pregnant patients remains the key to successful outcome; the obstetrician who has had some exposure to the management of diabetes might occasionally be faced with managing ...

Background: Despite advances in obstetrics and gynaecology, the perinatal mortality among twins still remains high. This study compares the perinatal outcome of first and second twin. Materials & Methods: A prospective study was conducted at Institute of maternal and Child Health, Calicut over a period of one year; 2005 to 2006. 200 (antenatal women with) twin pregnancies were followed up from ...

Improving diabetic pregnancy outcome is a goal shared by many involved specialists. Despite proper glucose control, the incidence of maternal and perinatal complications is very high, including a high risk for pre-eclampsia, congenital malformations, perinatal mortality and macrosomia. To improve outcome, not only collaborating in the doctor's office is required but also participation in critic...

This paper explores the relationships between maternal weight, height and poor pregnancy outcome using a data set from a case-control study of low birth weight (LBW) and perinatal mortality in Ahmedabad, India. Maternal height and weights were compared between mothers of 611 perinatal deaths, 644 preterm-LBW, and 1465 normal birth weight controls as well as 617 small-for-gestational age (SGA) a...

Fetal outcome was evaluated in 157 hypertensive pregnant women whose underlying disease had been established by renal biopsy. The patients had pathologic diagnoses of preeclampsia (95), nephrosclerosis (23), nephrosclerosis with superimposed preeclampsia (13), interstitial and tubular nephropathy (seven), and normal findings (six). Pregnancy outcome in this selected group of patients was extrem...

Objective: To Study the Relationship between Maternal Hemoglobin and Perinatal outcome in a cohort of 860 pregnant women and to highlight the importance of antenatal care regarding maternal health and fetal outcome. Methods: All Singleton pregnancies delivering at Pakistan Railway Hospital Rawalpindi from January 2004 to December 2005 that fulfilled the required criteria were included. Results:...

I am writing in reference to the article ‘Does preconception care work?’ by Beckmann and coworkers. I support the authors’ aim of improving perinatal outcome and it seems intuitive that preconception care involving the reduction of maternal risk factors would achieve a healthier outcome for mother and baby. However, before funding preconception counselling, one needs to be sure that it works. T...