Risk Factors Associated With Birth Asphyxia in Term Newborns at a Tertiary Care Hospital of Multan, Pakistan

Background Perinatal asphyxia is one of the main causes of death in term newborns. During the past two decades, no significant progress has been made in reducing neonatal deaths in developing countries. This study was aimed to determine various factors associated with birth asphyxia in term newborns at a tertiary care hospital of Multan, Pakistan. Methods This case-control study was conducted at the Neonatal pediatrics Department, The Children's Hospital, Multan in collaboration with the labor room of Nishtar Hospital Multan from April 2020 to September 2020. Newborns delivered in the labor room with a low Apgar score of five or less at the first minute were recruited as cases and newborns with an Apgar score of more than five in the first minute were recruited as controls. The demographic information of neonates and mothers was noted. A Performa was used to collect all information. All data were analyzed through SPSS 26.0 (IBM SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results A total of 426 newborns (213 cases and 213 controls) were enrolled. In cases, there were 132 males and 81 females whereas there were 115 males and 98 females in the control group (P=0.09). Majority 132 (62%) mothers of cases were primiparous compared with 110 (52%) mothers of control. The difference in parity of mothers of cases and control (P=0.03) was significant. Prolonged labour was noted in cases 123 (58%) vs. controls 55 (26%) (P=0.001) while fetal distress was found in 120 (56%) cases and 45 (21%) controls (P=0.001). Meconium was found in the amniotic fluid in 171 (80%) cases and 86 (40%) controls (P=0.001). All other risk factors turned out to be insignificant between cases and controls (P>0.05). Conclusion Meconium stained liquor is a major risk factor for birth asphyxia. Prolonged labor of more than 24-hour period, as well as fetal distress, is also a major risk factor of perinatal asphyxia. Involving obstetricians in the present research give more reliability and reproducibility of the data collected.