An assessment of stillbirths in a tertiary hospital in northern Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the stillbirth rate and causes in Birnin Kudu, North-west, Nigeria.

Method: This was a retrospective study. It involved 705 women who presented for delivery in Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kudu and had stillbirths. The hospital maternity and theatre registers were used to identify the women who had stillbirth during the study period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2012. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 statistical software. Significant association between socio-demographic/obstetrics factors and stillbirth were tested using the chi-square test and p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Result: The stillbirth rate was 170 per 1000 births. Most of the women who had stillbirths (29.1%) were aged 20-24 years, followed by those aged ≥35 years (27.1%). The uneducated women were more than those who had only primary education and this was statistically significant (p = 0.001). The mean parity of the women was 5 ± 3. Obstructed labour was the common cause of stillbirth followed by placental abruption (17.73%) and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (13.33%).

Conclusion: The stillbirth rate reported in this study was higher than those reported from other regions of Nigeria and obstructed labour was the common cause.

Keywords: Nigeria; north-west; obstructed labour; stillbirths.