Sunita Sreegiri1, Phani Madhavi Kajana2, Dhanalakshmi Balaga3, Kesava Lakshmi Prasad Kandipudi4, Devi Madhavi Bhimarasetty5
BACKGROUND
The status of maternal health in developing countries is often described in terms
of maternal mortality alone. Data on maternal morbidity is inadequate as there is
no proper reporting system. Improving maternal health and reducing maternal
mortality has been the critical concerns of the international community. So, the
present study was undertaken to identify and determine the factors associated
with early postpartum morbidity among mothers in the rural field practice area of
Rural Health Center (RHC), Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted among post-partum mothers in the early
postpartum period, registered with Rural Health Centre (RHC), Simhachalam, from
March 2019 to November 2019 using a pre-tested semi structured questionnaire.
Study was conducted among 335 postnatal mothers. List of antenatal mothers
registered in RHC Simhachalam was obtained. Antenatal mothers who had their
expected date of delivery (EDD) between April 2019 and Aug 2019 and were
available in Simhachalam in the post-partum period were contacted after getting
information about their delivery from local Multipurpose Health Worker (MPHW).
The mothers were visited and interviewed between day 7 and day 10 at their home
and information on morbidity was obtained.
RESULTS
Most common complaints seen in the early postpartum period among the study
participants were easy fatigability [214 (63.7 %)], headache in 140 (41.66 %),
pedal oedema [131 (39 %)] and facial oedema [27 (8.0 %)]. Almost 67.85 % of
mothers were anaemic. Among the obstetric related complaints, lower abdominal
tenderness was the most common [196 (58.3 %)] followed by heavy vaginal
bleeding [138 (41.1 %)], episiotomy wound swelling / pain [90 (26.8 %)] and
postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) [46 (13.7 %)]. Episiotomy wound infection [24
(7.12 %)] and Caesarean wound infection [12 (3.57 %)] were seen together
constituting around 10. 7 % among mothers.
CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of morbidity in the early postpartum period was high with 82.5 %
of the mothers presenting with one or more morbidities.
