Prevalence of Hemolytic Anemia and Hemoglobinopathies among the Pregnant Women Attending a Tertiary Hospital in Central India

Anemia in pregnancy is one of the causes of maternal morbidity and, maternal and fetal mortality in India. Hemoglobin transports oxygen to different parts of the body. Any defect in hemoglobin structure leads to its adverse functions. Screening of pregnant women for hemoglobinopahties helps in early intervention for reducing morbidity and mortality. Although the prevalence of hemoglobinopathies especially of the sickle cell disorders is high in Madhya Pradesh but any study on pregnant women is lacking. This study had set the objectives to find the prevalence of anemia and hemoglobin disorders in pregnant women, and to determine the health status through hematological indices profile in central India. Hospital based a cross-sectional study showed 12.26% prevalence of hemoglobinopathies among 416 pregnant women, the sickle cell trait being 7.45%, followed by β-thalassemia trait (2.89%), hemoglobin E trait (0.24%), and sickle cell disease (1.68%). About 88% of the pregnant women were found free of hemoglobinopathies. Of the 9.13% pregnant women included in the study were suffering from sickle cell disorders. However, the overall 47.11% anemia was observed in pregnant women, ranging in between 45% to 66% and seemed to show a reduction in anemia after nutritional supplementations and improvement in maternal health care at antenatal check up due to accessibility to medical health facilities. A comparison of hematological indices of pregnant women afflicted with and without sickle cell disorders have revealed much reduced hemoglobin level, red blood cells count, mean corpuscular volume, hematocrit, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin; and raised leucocytosis in sickle cell disorder cases than among the normal pregnant women. A more vigorous and realistic campaign of prophylactic regime of supplementations for these pregnant women and child health care is suggested.