Open AccessLow birthweight and post partum endometritis‐myometritis
Author(s) -
Bergström Staffan,
Libombo Aida
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.3109/00016349509013472
Subject(s) - medicine , endometritis , post partum , obstetrics , gynecology , postpartum period , pregnancy , biology , genetics
Background. The study aims at confirming or rejecting the hypothesis of an association between birthweight and post partum uterine infection. Methods. A case‐referent study was performed on 51 puerperal women with clinical signs of endometritis‐myometritis. To each case an otherwise healthy puerperal woman was recruited and matched for age, parity and days after delivery. Results. The proportion of women having had newborns with birthweight < 2500 g was 20/49 among cases and 2/50 among referents (odds ratio 16.6; 95% CI 3.5–152.3). Preterm births were registered in 15/50 cases and 2/49 referents (odds ratio 10.1; 95% CI 2.1–94.5). The average gestational age at delivery was approximately 2 weeks shorter among cases than among referents (37.5 versus 39.5 weeks). Conclusions. Low birth weight was ten times more prevalent among women with puerperal infection than among healthy puerperal women. The findings indicate that giving birth to a low birth weight baby is strongly associated with ensuing puerperal infection, possibly by a subclinical antenatal intrauterine infection, predisposing to both adverse fetal and maternal outcomes of pregnancy.