Effect of maternal anemia on cord blood haemoglobin of newborn

Abstract

Background: Anemia during pregnancy is linked to major maternal and fetal problems. The aim of the study was to find any correlation between maternal anemia and neonatal cord blood haemoglobin (Hb) levels.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in the department of pediatrics and department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki over 9 months from January 2021 to September 2021. A total of 308 pregnant females more than 34 weeks of gestation who delivered participated in the study and cord blood hemoglobin of their new-born was collected. The mean maternal hemoglobin and mean cord blood hemoglobin were compared using the Pearson correlation coefficient in different groups i.e., non-anemic, anemic, mild, moderate, and severe anemic groups. Results: Out of 308 pregnant women, 198 (64.3%) were anemic, and 110 (35.7%) were nonanemic. The mean maternal hemoglobin among non-anemic mothers and anemic mothers was 11.91 (0.70) and 9.14 (1.56) respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient of non-anemic, anemic, mild, moderate, and severe anemic groups were 0.6985, 0.8453, 0.7772, 0.6321, and 0.7226 respectively with a statistically significant p value<0.05 showing a positive correlation between maternal hemoglobin and cord hemoglobin.Conclusions: From this study, we concluded that maternal anemia affects neonatal cord blood hemoglobin. According to the findings, anemic women deliver new-born with lower hemoglobin levels than non-anemic mothers. The findings revealed a linear correlation between maternal hemoglobin and cord blood hemoglobin of their new-born.

Impact of Umbilical Cord Milking and Delayed Cord Clamping on Hematological Parameters in Term Neonates: A Case Control Study

“…Studies done by Rathoria et al, 24 Sareen et al, 25 Dhanasekaran et al 26 showed anemic mothers deliver babies with lower hemoglobin compared to nonanemic mothers. Similar results were shown in mothers with mild anemia (10-10.9 g/dL).…”

“…They have found a linear relationship between maternal hemoglobin and cord hemoglobin of the newborns. Study by Rathoria et al 24 showed that in anemia, placental iron transport mechanisms may fail, resulting in drop in cord Hb. Hence, in our study we included only nonanemic mothers (maternal hemoglobin of < 11 g/dL was excluded).…”

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Newborn Anemia in Southwestern Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The finding of a positive correlation between maternal and umbilical cord hemoglobin in this study is similar to other studies in Nepal, Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, India, and Iran [ 22 – 25 ]. Since the fetus obtains iron from maternal transferrin, when maternal iron stores are depleted, the fetus cannot accumulate as much iron, resulting in a decrease in fetal iron stores and reduced fetal hemoglobin levels [ 10 , 26 – 29 ]. The physiological changes and metabolic demands of pregnancy result in an increased requirement for iron in pregnancy [ 30 ], predisposing to maternal anemia.…”

Prevalence and risk factors for newborn anemia in southwestern Uganda: a prospective cohort study

“…The finding of a positive correlation between maternal and umbilical cord haemoglobin in this study is similar to other studies in Nigeria, Kenya, Israel, India and Iran ( Kuile et al, 1999 ; Dapper and Didia, 2007 ; Alizadeh et al, 2014 ). Since the fetus obtains iron from maternal transferrin, when maternal iron stores are depleted, the fetus cannot accumulate as much iron resulting in a decrease in fetal iron stores and reduced fetal hemoglobin levels ( Bergmann et al, 2010 ; Kosto et al, 2015 ; Shukla, Srivastava and Verma, 2019 ; Alegbeleye, Abam and Orazulike, 2020 ; Rathoria and Rathoria, 2021 ). The physiological changes and metabolic demands of pregnancy result in an increased requirement for iron in pregnancy ( Kohli, Rajput and Venkatesan, 2021 ) predisposing to maternal anemia.…”