The rate of birth asphyxia and its relationship with delivery mode at Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Isfahan City, Iran, during 2013-2015

Abstract

Background: Birth asphyxia is still considered as one of the biggest challenges faced by perinatal care experts. According to the statistics published by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005, it is estimated that one fourth of infant mortality cases occurs due to birth asphyxia. Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective clinical trial study was done on newborn population with gestational ages of 36 weeks or higher, including those afflicted with birth asphyxia, during the years 2013-2015. The relationship between the mode of delivery and the cases of birth asphyxia were investigated using logistic regression test via SPSS software. Findings: Of 13574 newborns, 67 newborns were afflicted with birth asphyxia between the years 2013 to 2015. The rates of birth asphyxia among the newborns in years 2013 and 2014 were less than 0.3; but, this rate had reached almost 1 in 2015. Meanwhile, the birth asphyxia rate among the vaginal deliveries had doubled in 2015; while the same rate among section deliveries had risen to 5 times more than that of 2013. Logistic regression analysis showed that only one of the independent variables, "year", made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model (P < 0.001). The delivery mode did not have any statistically significant influence on the newborns’ affliction with birth asphyxia (P = 0.993). Conclusion: There was an obvious difference between the prevalence of birth asphyxia in our study and WHO rates. More studies with larger sample sizes in different centers and cities are recommended. © 2017, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.