Birth Interval and its Relation with Pregnancy Outcome.

Abstract

Abstract: Background: In developing countries one of the most practical and best way for prevention of irregular population growth, is to leave birth intervals. The short birth intervals cause both the mother and infant to be considered in the group of high risk pregnancies and infants. Regarding that one of the health difficulties in the Iran is the present incorrect reproductive behavior and pregnancies with short intervals are considered as a good indicators of this view, so regarding the importance of the problem, the researcher decided to do a study about birth interval and its relation with pregnancy outcome in medical educational centers in Tabriz 2000. Method: This study was a descriptive research that has been done on 761 women who has history of at least two pregnancies and referred to Al-Zahra and Taleghani Educational Medical Centers for receiving labor services. The sampling was continued until accessing to at least 253 sample with the birth intervals shorter than 36 months, all of the pregnant women who were qualified to participate were chosen with simple sampling method. Data gathering tool was a questionnaire that completed by interview, observation, studying the records and follow up by calling to mothers home. Descriptive statistics (Frequencies. Mean a standard deviation) and analytical statistics (x^2 test) were used for data analyzing. Results: The findings showed that the birth interval of 13.8% samples was shorter than two years and the birth interval of 35.1% of them was shorter than three years. There was no significant differences between two groups (short birth interval and long birth interval) regarding preterm labor and neonatal Apgar in first and fifth minutes, but there were a significant differences between two groups regarding neonatal weight and perinatal mortality (p<0.05). Conclusion: In general the research findings showed that the short birth intervals are common and short birth intervals may increase low birth weight and perinatal mortality. So it is necessary that health authorities have a special attention to prevention of short birth interval in their planning.