PREVALANCE OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NEONATES IN DELIVERY WARD ATTENDING AT ST. PAUL’S HOSPITAL MILLENNIUM MEDICAL COLLEG ADDIS ABEBA ETHIOPIA 2022

Abstract

Abstract Background – low birth weight is to describe babies are born weight less than 2.5 kg/2500gr. An average new born usually weights about >2500gr/<4000gr .low birth weight babies may be healthy even though they are small .but a low birth babies can also have many serious health problems. The cause which includes pre-mature that means before 37 weeks of pregnancy a premature babies has less time in the mothers uterus to grow and wt. gain .much of babies wt. is gained during the last weeks of pregnancy, another causes of low birth wt. is condition called birth, IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) this occurred when babies does not grow well during pregnancy .it may be causes of problems with the placenta, a mother’s health, or the babies health Objective – the objective the study was to assess low birth weight and associated factors among laboring mothers attending St. Paul’s hospital millennium medical college delivery ward, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Method - hospital based cross sectional Study design was used. The target population was all delivered mothers and neonates. The data was collected by using structured interview questioner, SPSS version 25 was used for data entry and analysis. Data was cleaned as well as edited before analysis. Result and discussion The finding of this study shown that the percentage of low birth with weight was 30 (13.6%).The finding of this study was lower than cross sectional study done in India 73 (28.8%),(17) in Uganda 25.5%(16).another, A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out in Bangladesh 25.49% (20). In Ethiopia ,the study done at University of Gondar referral hospital 17.1%(24), in Bahir Dar Felege Hiwote Referral hospital 25.5%(6). On the other hand the finding of this study was higher than study done in Iran 6.7 %( 18). Another facility based cross sectional study conducted on the Prevalence at Maternity Ward at Negest Elene Mohammed Memorial General Hospital in Hosanna Town, SNNPR, Ethiopia showed the prevalence of LBW was (9.8%)(10). Conclusion and recommendation - Low birth weight is common and accounts for 13.6 % in SPHMMC .Large community-based studies in different geographical, environmental and socio economic settings should be conducted in Ethiopia to determine the prevalence of low birth weight infants in the general population Key word-LBW, IUGR, SPHMMC,