Still-birth determinants at a municipal hospital assistential Service

Abstract

The research aimed at identifying the still-birth determinants at the municipal district of Mombaça – CE, through an exploratory, descriptive and transversal study in which 28 cases of fetal losses were investigated among 1,637 puerperal mothers admitted at a municipal hospital, in the period of January, 2000 and December, 2001. Data were collected at the Medical and Statistical Service’s Archives at the district hospital, having as variables: the number of pregnancies and prenatal appointments, the gestation age, the still-born’s weight and sex and the fetal death cause. In this context, most of the mothers belonged to the rural area thus indicating a greater difficulty in the access to the hospital’s reproductive health services. In 64,2% (n = 18) of the researched files there were no information about the prenatal appointments. Among the 28 referred cases, 96,4% (n = 27) of the puerperal mothers had only one pregnancy. The gestation age varied from 22 to 41 weeks; 28,6% (n = 8) being of untimely gestations. The weight in the still-born babies varied from a minimum of 900 g to a maximum of 4.000 g; 57% (n =16) of them showing a weight below 2.600g. Among the fetal losses, most were of undefined causes (39%; n = 9). In reference to the fetal related causes, prematureness pointed out (32%; n =9). The only maternal related cause described was Eclampsia (3.5%). The great number of under notified information referring to the prenatal appointments suggests the need of actions for the adequacy of the health information’ system with subsequently improvement of the local health reproductive assistance.