The Short-Term Outcome of Infants With Birth Asphyxia In Muhimbili Medical Centre

Birth asphyxia is important cause of neurological handicaps like cerebral palsy mental retardation, epilepsy, deafness, visual impairment and behavioral and learning disorder in childhood. In Muhimbili medical centre, birth asphyxia is number one cause of neonatal deaths. Improved obstetric and perinatal care in the developed countries has reduced the incidence and severity of birth asphyxia remarkably. However, little is know of magnitude of the problem in the developing countries as well as the associated maternal and obstetric care factors. This information is important in order to plan rational control measures. In this study the sample size 501 with 79 cases and 422 controls. The study determined an incidence of birth asphyxia of 40.5 per 100 live birth the maternal characteristics which were associated with the occurrence of birth asphyxia were age and parity. 36.7% asphyxiated babies and 0.4% of normal babies died within the first week. Manifestations of neurological deficit identified in follow up were an abnormal increase of muscle tone. (11.9%), convulsion (2.38%) and persistent palmar grasp reflex (50%) in the asphyxiated babies. It is concluded that birth asphyxia contributes significantly in neurological problems and there fore there is a need to provide better perinatal care order to reduce this high incidence.