Gynecology & Obstetrics
Open Access

Abstract

Still Birth and Associated Factors among Women Delivered in Public Hospitals, Southwest Ethiopia

Tsegaye Lolaso, Fekede Weldekidan, Tesfaye Abera, Tilahun Mekonnen, Lalisa Chewaka

Background: Stillbirth has decreased substantially worldwide in the past 40 years. Yet there is still a large gap between
the developing and developed countries. Data on prevalence and main risk factors for stillbirth were limited in
developing countries including Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess the magnitude and associated factors of stillbirth among women delivered at public hospitals in
Southwest Ethiopia.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1980 delivering women’s from randomly selected
hospitals from February 01 to March 30, 2018. All women who gave birth at public hospitals of Bench-Maji, Kaffa
and Sheka Zones during study period were included. Data was collected by pretested questionnaire by face to face
interview and entered to Epidata version 3.0 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Logistic regression analysis
was carried out to identify independently associate factors at CI of 95% and significance level of P-value<0.05.
Results: The magnitude stillbirth, in this study was 99 per 1000 livebirths, 95% CI: 85-114 per 1000 livebirths. Rural
residence [AOR=2.76 (CI:1.57-4.85)], maternal undernutrition [AOR=2.99 (CI 1.90-4.72)], had no iron/folate intake
during pregnancy [AOR=8.26 (CI:4.82-14.16)], having delivery complication [AOR=3.77 (CI 2.31-6.16)], induced
labor [AOR=2.25 (CI 1.26-4.00)] and underweight [AOR=7.60 (CI 3.73-15.48)] were factors significantly associated
with stillbirth.
Conclusion: In the study area magnitude of still birth still found as public health concern. Residence, nutritional
status, iron folate intake during pregnancy, delivery complication, induced labor and low birth weight were factors
significantly associated with stillbirth. This could call for improvement of nutritional status of the mothers;
supplementation of iron folate during pregnancy; prevention, early diagnosis and management of obstetric
complications

Published Date: 2021-03-08; Received Date: 2021-02-15