The impact of anemia and iron supplementation during pregnancy in St. Philomena’s hospital, Bangalore, India

Objective:  the main objective of the study was to investigate the impact of anemia in pregnancy. Methodology:  it was a prospective observational study conducted in the gynecology ward, St. Philomena’s hospital, Bangalore, India, conducted for 6 months from October 2016 to March 2017. The participants were all inpatients women who were pregnant and anemic. The patient data collection was used to collect all the details like inpatient number, age, gender, social history, history, laboratory data, diagnosis, and therapeutic management. All inpatients were those diagnosed with and without anemia in pregnancy. The prescription guidelines, Micromedex, were collected and then compared with guidelines. When the analysis of prescription was completed, all data entered into the appropriate software and the results were obtained. Results: The present study showed that from a total of 110 patients included in this study, anemia was confirmed in 50 patients of them. Among these, 28 (25.4%) patients were diagnosed as mild anemic, 20 (18.1%) as moderate, and 2 (1.8%) as severe anemic patients. The results of this study showed that LBW is higher in anemic women (n=19, 25%) compared to non-anemic (n=17, 21%). Besides, the majority of newborns (n=66, 59.9%) were male. Conclusion: Factors associated with anemia in pregnancy were caste, dietary – habits, education, occupation, socioeconomic status, ANC visit, iron, and folic acid supplementation, whereas residence, religion, number of children, type of family, and inter-pregnancy interval (months), were not associated. These should be improved by providing proper ANC services. More low-birth-weight (LBW) babies were born to anemic mothers. Anemia in pregnancy may be reduced by proper iron and folic acid supplementation which can be improved through providing proper ANC services. Anemia has also a recognizable association with fetal outcome.