International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | March-April 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 2 Page 518 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Yadav N et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2017 Mar;4(2):518-526 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Study of risk factors in children with birth asphyxia Nishant Yadav*, Sachin Damke INTRODUCTION World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Birth asphyxia as failure to initiate and sustain breath-ing in a newborn at birth. 1 It is a temporary interruption of oxygen availability that implies a risky metabolic challenge, even when the insult does not lead to a fatal outcome. Asphyxia results in hypoxemia (lack of oxygen) and hypercapnia (accumulation of carbon diox-ide). The combination of the decrease in oxygen supply (hypoxia) and blood supply (ischemia) re-sults in a ABSTRACT Background: Birth asphyxia is a serious clinical problem worldwide and contributes greatly to neonatal mortality and morbidity. Perinatal asphyxia is the fifth largest cause of under-5 deaths (8.5%) after pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal infections and complications of preterm birth. Risk factors of birth asphyxia have been divided into antepartum, intrapartum and fetal. Risk factors include increasing or decreasing ma-ternal age, prolonged rupture of membranes, meconium stained fluid, multiple births, non-attendance for antenatal care, low birth weight infants, malpresentation, augmentation of labour with oxytocin, antepartum haemorrhage, severe eclampsia and pre- eclampsia, ante partum and intrapartum anemia. The objective of this study was to study the risk factors in children with birth asphyxia. Methods: Observational prospective study was conducted on babies delivered in our hospital and requiring resuscitation (basic and/or advanced). Their clinical course was observed and studied in NICU till time of discharge or death. Detailed maternal history was taken for risk factors. Results: The mean age of mothers was 24.28 years which ranged from 20 years to 29 years. Most of the population was from the lower middle and upper lower socioeconomic status as per the Modified Kuppuswamy scale. 51% neonates were born to primiparous mothers. Anemia was widely prevalent in the moth-ers of neonates requiring resuscitation. The maternal risk factors for newborns requiring resuscita-tion were PIH (23.7%) , oligohydramnios (15%),multiple gestation (3.75 %), PROM (2.5%), diabetes mellitus (2.5%) and UTI (2.5%).One third of neonates requiring resuscitation were born to unbooked mothers.In the neonates requiring resuscitation, the male to female ratio was 1:1. The fetal factors associated with resuscitation of newborns were IUGR (33.75%), fetal distress (31.25%), prematurity (26.25%), MAS (12.5%) and malpresentations (5%). Conclusions: The most common maternal risk factors for newborns requiring resuscitation was PIH followed by oligohydramnios, multiple gestation, PROM, diabetes mellitus and UTI.IUGR was the most com-mon fetal risk factor followed by fetal distress, prematurity, MAS and malpresentations. One third of neonates requiring resuscitation were born to unbooked mothers. In There was no gender predomi-nance found in this study. Keywords: Birth asphyxia, PIH, PROM, IUGR Department of Pediatrics, Acharya Vinobha Bhave Rural Hospital, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical Col-lege, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Sawangi, Wardha, Maharashtra, India Received: 04 January 2017 Accepted: 30 January 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Nishant Yadav, E-mail: ynishant2189@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20170701