High risk pregnancies and factors associated with neonatal death

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To identify the factors associated with intra-hospital neonatal mortality based on the individual characteristics of at-risk pregnant mothers, delivery and newborns. METHOD This was a cross-sectional epidemiological study of live newborns delivered by women attended at the high-risk outpatient unit of a philanthropic hospital in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil between September 2012 and September 2013. RESULTS Six hundred and eighty-eight women participated in the study. The neonatal mortality coefficient found was 17.7/1,000 live births, most in the early neonatal phase. Premature labor, fetal malformation and multiple gestations were associated with neonatal death. Premature, very low birth weight newborns and those with an Apgar score of less than seven, five minutes after birth were at high risk of death. CONCLUSION Identifying risk factors can help plan actions to consolidate the perinatal network. Specific programs should be incentivized in other countries, in the search for significant perinatal results such as reducing neonatal mortality.