Antenatal haemoglobin profile at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital

Objective: To demographic characteristics in women attending antenatal clinic. Design: Prospective cross-sectional study. Setting: Antenatal clinic, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Subjects: Nine hundred and thirty two pregnant mothers attending antenatal clinic at the hospital. Patients with sickle cell disease, thalassaemia, sickling test positive or unknown sickling status were excluded. Main outcome measures: Proportion of patients whose records showed various frequencies of Hb determinations and the proportion of those with anaemia at 26 weeks and 34 weeks gestations. Results: One hundred and seventy five (18.8%) patients did not have antenatal Rb measurement; 248(26.6%) had two, and 251 (26.9%) had more than two measurements. The mean of booking Hb was 10.6 + 1.53 gm/dl, Of the 458 subjects with reliable dates, 293 had their booking Bb measurement at <26 weeks. For this sub-group the mean was 10.8 +/- 1.43 gm/dl. (22.5% were < 10gm/dl), For 272 subjects with reliable dates whose last Hb measurement was at > 34 weeks, the mean last Hb was 11.0 +/- 1.37 gm/dl, (last Hb was <10gm/dl in 19.1%). Nulliparity and booking antenatal weight < 64.0kg were significantly associated with Hb <10gm/dl at some time during pregnancy. Conclusion: Anaemia in pregnancy is common in this urban population, Combined effects of iron - folate supplementation, malaria chemoprophylaxis as well as early booking and a waiver of antenatal care user fees for needy patients are suggested as remedial measures.