Abstract

LEON PEREZ, Armando  and  YSIDRON YGLESIAS, Eglis. Factors related to a low birth Apgar score. Rev Cubana Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2010, vol.36, n.1, pp. 25-35. ISSN 1561-3062.

Nowadays, in African continent are reported the higher figures of infantile mortality at world scale, factors as a low Apgar score at birth and the congenital malformations could be prevented with timely health actions in community at secondary health level. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the behavior of some factors related to the low Apgar score at birth in the National Reference Maternity Hospital of Asmara in Eritrea. METHODS: A prospective analytical case-control research of pregnants to gave birth newborns with a Apgar score similar or less than 3 points during the fifth minute of life in the Gynecology and Obstetrics National Reference Hospital of Asmara, Eritrea from November, 2006 to November 20, 2007. RESULTS: The labor length and the expelling period, the onset and termination of delivery, the use of oxytocin, the unfavourable obstetrical backgrounds, chronic pathologies related to pregnancy, presence of meconium in amniotic fluid, gestational age at delivery and the newborn weight are related to a low Apgar score at birth in this institution. CONCLUSIONS: The factors more related to a low Apgar score at birth in this institution were: an anterior perinatal hypoxia, gravidity hypertensive disease, use of oxytocin in any moment at labor, the great length time of expelling period, presence of meconium in amniotic fluid and a low-birth newborn.

Keywords : Low Apgar; extended birth; presence of meconium in amniotic fluid; pathologies associated with pregnancy; use of oxytocin.

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