Archana Dhok

High Sensitivity C - Reactive Protein for Prediction of Adverse Pregnancy Outcome. Pregnancy, childbirth and their consequences are still the leading cause of disease, disability and death amongst women of reproductive age in developing countries. Over 300 millions in the developing world suffer from short term or long term illness brought about by pregnancy and childbirth; 5, 29,000 die each year. India is amongst those countries which have a very high Maternal Mortality Rate.While most pregnancies are problem free, few will have complications, minor to very serious. Human pregnancies are associated with profound inflammatory changes during early phase (Hwang HS et al 2007) resulting in adverse pregnancy outcome like premature rupture of membrane, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, preterm labour, low birth weight baby and still birth. Attempts are being made continuously for having screening tests with high sensitivity and positive predictive value so that timely preventive prophylactic therapies can be tried to avoid such pregnancy complications.

Maternal nutrition at conception and during pregnancy influences the growth and potential development of the fetus and contributes to the maturity of a healthy baby. Anemia is one of the most common nutritional deficiency disorders affecting the pregnant women; the prevalence in developed countries is 14%, in developing countries 51%, and in India, it varies from 65% to 75%.The current study concluded that the studied pregnant women had good knowledge and positive attitudes but poor practice toward prevention and the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia. To address the issue of anemia, the health service sector needs to incorporate health promotion strategies that will positively impact the attitude and practice levels of population.  Education should include antenatal care that focuses on intake of iron rich foods, iron supplementation and anti-helminths.  Counseling and health education are important for pregnant women with anemia, to improve their knowledge, awareness and practice to prevent anemia  Encourage pregnant women to practice intake iron-rich food and iron tablets during pregnancy in a proper way.