Pregnancy Outcome in Women with Sickle Cell Hemoglobinopathy and Normal Hemoglobin – A Case–Control Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Pregnancy in sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with an increased risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Objective: The objective of this study was to study the maternal and perinatal outcome of pregnancy in women with SCD/trait. Methods: This is a comparative study. Study group (subjects) consisted of 128 pregnant women with SCD/sickle cell trait who were attending the antenatal clinic or were admitted in obstetric wards and followed up until the 7th day after delivery. The control group consisted of 256 age and gravidity matched pregnant women who did not have SCD/trait recruited from the same hospital. Results: Statistically significant complications during pregnancy included anemia, crisis, and preeclampsia. Incidence of preterm deliveries, cesarean section, adverse fetal outcome in terms of stillbirths intrauterine deaths early neonatal deaths, and low birth weight was not significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. Conclusion: Incidence of preeclampsia (P = 0.0001) and congestive cardiac failure (P = 0.0001) was significantly high among the women with SCD.