Post Partum Haemorhage Among Women Delivered at Mbeya Referral Hospital in 2008

OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence, associated risk factors and outcome of post partum hemorrhage (PPH) among women delivering at the hospital setting. DESIGN Descriptive retrospective hospital based cross-section study RESULTS The targeted respondents were 344 pregnant women. Prevalence of PPH was 11.9% with re-admission rate of 41.5% and 12.2% deaths secondary to PPH where most of the women (35.2%) were given blood transfusion after re-admission and surgery as an immediate measure taken. Also it has been found that increase in blood loss is statistically associated with delivery by LSCS. (P=0.02) Risk factors for PPH found in this study are low hemoglobin (HB), pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), trauma after delivery, history of birth before arrival (BBA), advanced age group (>32years old) and multiparity (> 3 parity). CONCLUSION Although the prevalence seems to be low as compared to overall for Africa (33.4%), still PPH is associated with high mortality (12.2%) and morbidity where majority of risk factors found in this study are preventable.