Factors Associated with Birth Asphyxia in Overweight and Obese Pregnant Women

Abstract

Pregnant women who are overweight and obese are considered at high risk for birth asphyxia. The objective of this retrospective research was to identify the factors associated with neonatal hypoxia in overweight and obese pregnant women. Data were collected from the medical records of 673 women meeting the definition of a singleton gestation, who were overweight or obese, and who had given birth between 1 January and 31 December 2021 in the delivery room of a provincial hospital in the Northeastern region of Thailand. Analysis of the data using Chi-square and Fisher Exact tests showed that the maternal and infant factors which were associated with birth asphyxia and were statistically significant at the .05 level were: pre-pregnancy weight
(χ²[1, n = 673] = 7.19, p = .016), cumulative weight gain throughout pregnancy (χ²[3, n = 673] = 18.13, p = .001), the number of antenatal care visits (χ²[3, n = 671] = 19.00, p =.023), premature rupture of the amniotic sack (χ²[1, n = 673] = 8.05, p =.019), gestational age at birth (χ²[2, n = 673] = 49.32, p =.000), induced labor (χ²[1, n = 673] = 9.02, p = .008), preterm infants (χ²[1, n = 673] = 65.57, p = .000), near-term infants (χ²[1, n = 673] = 21.00, p = .001), and neonates weighing less than 2,500 g (χ²[1, n = 673] = 50.45, p = .000). Based on the results, we suggest that midwives may use this information to develop methods to prevent neonatal hypoxia, whether through the assessment of various risk factors or, especially, factors related to weight control before and throughout pregnancy as monitoring and promoting weight control in pregnancy may result in a lower incidence rate of birth asphyxia in this population.