Assessment of Iron Status in Sudanese Pregnant Women and their Newborn Babies

Abstract

This thesis is a prospective comparative hospital based study conducted at both Khartoum Teaching Hospital and Omdurman Maternity Hospital in the period from first of June 2004 to 15 July 2004. The aim of this study was to assess iron status in pregnant women at the time of labour, and that of their newborn babies in order to detect iron deficiency in either group, and to see if maternal iron deficiency had a significant effect on the iron status of the babies. 80 mothers, their newborns, and 20 controls were included in this study. Mothers coming in the first stage of labour, with single pregnancy, taking or not taking iron tablets were studied as well as their newborns. Controls were matched for age and sex and were not on iron supplementation. Hb, RBCs indices and biochemical iron status including serum iron and ferritin as well as TIBC were assessed in all mothers, their newborns and the controls. Anaemia was detected in 8 mothers (10%) six of whom were iron deficient (7.5%). Latent iron deficiency anaemia, as evidenced by low serum ferritin in the face of normal Hb values, was detected in 42 mothers (52.2%) giving an overall prevalence of iron deficiency in the studied mothers of 60%. Mild to moderate depletion of maternal iron stores did not affect newborn’s Hb or iron stores while severe depletion did. Prevalence of anaemia in newborns was found to be 22.5% with only 5 % due to iron deficiency. A statistically significant relationship was found between regularity of iron supplementation and adequate iron stores. (P value 0.001). Serum ferritin measurement was found to be a better parameter in diagnosing iron defiency during pregnancy than serum iron and TIBC. Prevalence of iron deficiency was found to be directly proportional to increasing gravity, short birth intervals, poor education of both parents and irregular or inadequate iron supplementation.