Correlating Pregnancy Outcomes Between Early and Late Antenatal Bookings in Labasa Hospital – A Retrospective Cohort Study

ABSTRACT

Background@#Many benefits are associated with early antenatal booking which include but are not limited to accurate dating, early detection of medical and obstetrical disorders that could make the pregnancy a high-risk pregnancy and affect its outcome, and objective assessment of maternal baselines such as identifying pre-existing risk factors, taking weight, blood pressure, blood sugar level and urinalysis. If done early, it may provide a picture of the pre-pregnancy condition of the woman. @*Aim@#In the time period and setting looked at in this research, it was found that majority of the mothers booked late, however reasons for booking late were not sought as this was only a quantitative retrospective cohort study. From the outcomes measured, it was seen that anaemia was the most significant outcome associated with late bookers. PPH was also found to be significant amongst late bookers however other statistical analysis deemed it insignificant.@*Results@#The results of this study found that majority of the women (76,58%) booked late. Of these, women who booked late fell in the 15 to 25 age range, were of I-taukei ethnicity, were married, did domestic duties, attended secondary level of education and were multiparous. The most significant pregnancy outcome that was associated with late booking was found to be anaemia. The remaining outcomes were found to be insignificant.