The magnitude of preterm birth among mothers who gave birth in Wolikte University specialized hospital, Gubreye, Gurage zone, Ethiopia August 2022

Abstract

Background: Preterm birth is a birth that occurs after 20 weeks of gestation and before completion of 37 menstrual weeks of gestation (after 28 weeks of gestation in our set up) regardless of birth weight and sub-divided as extremely preterm, very preterm and preterm. The rate of preterm birth and death varies all over the globe. , therefore, this study aimed to asses prevalence of preterm birth retrospective of past 3 month and provide further relevant data for future researches to be done in our hospital. Objective: To assess magnitude of preterm birth among mothers who gave birth in wolikte university specialized hospital in past 3 months, 2014 E.C. Method: This study was conducted in wolikte university specialized teaching hospital which is located in Gurage zone, Southern nation nationalities of Ethiopia, Ethiopia from August 22 to August 26 2022GC. Retrospective descriptive study design was employed. Data was collected by reviewing registration books from wolikte university specialized hospital gynecology and obstetrics ward; and from delivery chart. Data was entered to epi-info version 3.5.1 and exported to spss version 21 for analysis. Ethical clearance was secured by ethical committee of Wolkite University, college of medicine and health science. Result: From 167 samples based on calculated sample size 20.89 % are preterm among those preterms 55.1 % are males and 44.9 % are females. From the total samples on their gestational age 1.2 % are born between 26-28 weeks, 4.2 % are between are 28-32 and 13.2 % are between 32 – 37, 81.4 % are more than 37 weeks.Conclusion and recommendation: the prevalence of preterm birth is higher in our set up. We recommend to increase awareness of preterm birth, contributing factor and possible complication related to it.