A longitudinal study on the effects of previous stillbirth or abortion on subsequent pregnancies and infants

Background This study was conducted to assess the effects of stillbirth and abortion on the health of the subsequent newborns. Methods A prospective cohort study was implemented. The data were collected from January 2015 to August 2019. The study participants were selected using the simple random sampling technique. The data were collected using interviewing the pregnant mothers, reviewing medical charts, analyzing the blood samples from the newborn and scheduled medical checkups. The general linear model was used to assess the effects of stillbirth and abortion on the health of the newborn, Poisson regression was used to identify predictors of childhood infectious disease episodes and Kaplan–Meier survival curves were used to estimate time to childhood pneumonia and diarrhea. Results Two thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two infants were included giving a response rate of 88.97%. Neonates born from mothers with a previous history of stillbirth or abortion had low birth-weight, low serum iron and zinc levels. High infection episodes of diarrhea and pneumonia were observed among infants born from a previous history of stillbirth and abortion mothers. The infection episodes during the childhood period were determined by serum zinc level [incident rate ratio (IRR): 0.71; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61–0.83], birth-weight (IRR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.81–0.91) and breastfeeding frequency (IRR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.87–0.93). Conclusion The birth-weight, serum iron and zinc levels of neonates born from the previous history of stillbirth and abortion were lower. The infection episodes of newborns born from mothers with a previous history of stillbirth or abortion were higher.