Adherence to recommended intra-partum guidelines of high risk pregnancies: a study in North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Background: High risk pregnancies in intra-partum period are vulnerable, and if not appropriately attended, may roll on to maternal death or dreaded maternal near-miss cases. Despite the presence of a number of standard treatment guidelines designed to address most of the high risk conditions, their adherence and implementation continues to be uncommon. To assess the adherence to recommended guidelines during referral of high risk pregnancies in labour in mothers of the difficult terrains of eastern Himalaya. Methods: A descriptive epidemiological study with cross-sectional design was conducted among mothers with high risk pregnancies admitted in the labour ward, North Bengal Medical College Hospital, Darjeeling. 433 subjects were studied using complete enumeration technique. Results: Anaemia in pregnancy (22%), obstructed labour (19%), pre-term rupture of membranes (15%) and pregnancy induced hypertension (15%) were the high risk conditions identified. Referral linkage existed in most (70.7%) but no pre-referral treatment was given to 61.4% of the intra-partum mothers. Multivariate analysis shows mothers with age more than 35 years (AOR 4.97), bad obstetric history (AOR 2.40) & not attended by doctors (AOR 5.02) were found to be having more odds of missing the pre-referral treatment. About 86% of the gaps in pre-referral treatment were due to doctors not attending patients, lack of referral communication, not providing JSSK facilities and non-maintenance of Partograph as per Pareto analysis. Conclusions: Most of the non-adherence to standard treatment guidelines in high risk intra-partum mothers are related to health service delivery and can be ameliorated through proper administrative measures.