Materials and methods
The study was carried out on pregnant woman attending obstetric outpatient department of a rural tertiary care hospital, Nagpur, India, from January 2009 to December 2009.
Total number of woman delivering during this period was 1898. Woman attending outpatient department before 20 weeks of gestation with singleton pregnancy, aged 18 years and above were included in study.
Woman with multiple pregnancies, past preterm labor and other associated medical complications were excluded. Anemia was defined according to WHO criteria, i.e hemoglobin < 11 gm/dl. In this study, anemia was labelled, if Hb was less than 11 gm/dl on two occasions during pregnancy and labor.
Hemoglobin levels were measured at first visit then at the end of second trimester and twic in third trimester. If the hemoglobin < 9 gm/dl after 3 weeks then parenteral iron therapy when given intramuscularly or intravenously, and at hemoglobin < 7 gm/dl blood transfusions were given. All information regarding gestational age at deliveries, complication at deliveries, fetal outcome in term of weight and Apgar score was recorded