Postpartum Maternal Morbidity Requiring Hospital Admission in A Teaching Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Major concern shifts from mother to newborn in postnatal period. Postpartum complications contribute to a lot of maternal morbidity and mortality. This study aims to determine the prevalence of morbidities in women following delivery at Manipal Teaching Hospital so as to identify and improve maternal quality care.

Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Manipal Teaching Hospital from September 2018 to March 2020 after ethical approval from the institutional review committee with reference number 1296. All the women presenting to the department during the study period were included in the study. Women who were admitted to accompany and nurse their babies for neonatal problems were excluded.Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Data were entered in Excel and analysed in SPSS.

Results: Among 3510 cases, 104 women were admitted with various postpartum morbidities. The prevalence of postpartum morbidity was found to be 104 (2.96%) at 95% Confidence Interval (2.67-3.25). Puerperal sepsis was diagnosed in 23 (22.11%), preeclampsia in 20(19.23%) eclampsia in 14 (13.46%) and haemorrhage in 14 (13.46%) respectively. Majority of patients, 83.65% belonged to age group of 20-34 years. Nine patients (8.65%) were teenage mothers.

Conclusions: Puerperal sepsis, preeclampsia, eclampsia and haemorrhage were the major postpartum complications requiring admissions in hospital.