Birth Trauma Among Live Born Term Neonates at a Referral Hospital In Addis Ababa

Abstract

A two-year retrospective case control study (September 2000 - August2002) was
conducted to assess the occurrence, risk factors and out comes of mechanical birth injuries among
live term neonates in a referral hospital. One hundred and fifty cases and 358 controls were studied.
Subgaleal hemorrhage was the commonest birth injury (61 %). Primiparity, vacuum delivery,
forceps delivery, birth weight ~ 3.5 kilograms were found to be strongly associated to birth trauma.
Infants with subgaleal hemorrhage are more likely to be complicated than infants with other
mechanical injuries.
Implications of these findings are discussed.