PURPOSE: To assess the prevalence of obstetric risk factors and their association with unfavorable outcomes for the mother and fetus. METHODS: A longitudinal, descriptive and analytical study was conducted on 204 pregnant women between May 2007 and December 2008. Clinical and laboratory assessments followed routine protocols. Risk factors included socio-demographic aspects; family, personal and obstetric history; high pre-gestational body mass index (BMI); excessive gestational weight gain and anemia. Adverse outcomes included pre-eclampsia (4.5%), gestational diabetes mellitus (3.4%), premature birth (4.4%), caesarian birth (40.1%), high birth weight (9.8%) and low birth weight (13.8%). RESULTS: The average age was 26±6.4 years; the mothers were predominantly non-white (84.8%), 51.8% had incomplete or complete secondary level schooling, 67.2% were in a stable marital relationship and 51.0% had a regular paid job; 63.7% were admitted to the prenatal clinic during the second trimester and 16.7% during the first, with 42.6% being primiparous. A past history of chronic hypertension was reported by 2.9%, pre-eclampsia by 9.8%, excessive gestational weight gain by 15.2% and former gestational diabetes mellitus by 1.0%. In the current pregnancy, elevated pre-gestational BMI was found in 34.6%; 45.5% presented with excessive gestational weight gain, 25.3% with anemia and 47.3% with dyslipidemia. Of the 17.5% of cases with altered blood glucose, gestational diabetes mellitus was confirmed in 3.4% and proteinuria occurred in 16.4% of all cases. Adverse maternal fetal outcomes included pre-eclampsia (4.5%), gestational diabetes mellitus (3.4%), premature birth (4.4%), caesarean birth (40.1%) and high and low birth weight (9.8% and 13.8%, respectively). Independent predictors of adverse maternal fetal outcomes were identified by Poisson multivariate regression analysis: pre-gestational BMI>25 kg/m² was a predictor for pre-eclampsia (RR=17.17; 95%CI 2.14-137.46) and caesarian operation (RR=1.79; 95%CI 1.13-2.85), previous caesarean was a predictor for present caesarean operation (RR=2.28; 95%CI 1.32-3.92) and anemia and high gestational weight gain were predictors for high birth weight (RR=3.38; 95%CI 1.41-8.14 and RR=4.68; 95%CI 1.56-14.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: Pre-gestational overweight/obesity, previous caesarean, excessive weight gain and anemia were major risk factors for pre-eclampsia, caesarean operations and high birth weight.
Risk factors; Pregnancy outcome; Pre-eclampsia; Fetal weight; Overweight
