Obesity and its relation with cesarean sections in maternity teaching hospital in Erbil 2015 - 2016

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is defined as increase in body weight due to excessive fat accumulation. It is the most common nutritional disorder in the affluent industrialized and developed world. A generally accepted definition of obesity is a body mass index more than 30kg/m. The World Health Organization
describes obesity as: "one of the most blatantly visible, yet most neglected public health problem that threaten to overwhelm both, more and less developed countries."
Aim: To determine the frequency of cesarean section in obese pregnant women.
Material and methods : It is a descriptive cross sectional study carried out in maternity teaching hospital in Erbil from April 2015 to April 2016.
Two hundred and forty four women were enrolled in this study. Both primigravida and multigravida with BMI 30 kg/m² or more, before 16 weeks of pregnancy were booked from out-patient department. Women with multiple pregnancies, previous cesarean section, pregnancies with medical disorders etc were excluded. Data was analyzed by using SPSS- 10 version.
Results: Out of 244 women recruited, one hundred and forty (57.4%) women were primigravida and 104 (42.6%) multigravida. Mean BMI was 31.18kg/m² ±SD 1.17. Spontaneous labor started in 154 (63.1%), while labor was induced in 77 (31.6%). Thirteen patients (5.3%) were delivered by elective
cesarean section. Spontaneous vaginal delivery occurred in 116 women (47.5%), instrumental delivery in 31(12.7%) and cesarean section in 97 women (39.8%). Mean BMI of patients delivered by spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) was 31.47kg/m², by instrumental 31.66kg/m2, by cesarean section 32.33 kg/m² (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Obesity significantly increased the frequency of cesarean section especially in primigravida.