Descriptive study to assess the awareness of ill effects of consanguineous marriage on pregnancy, fetus and child in antenatal mothers

Background: Consanguinity  refers to marriage or a reproductive relationship between two closely related individuals. Consanguinity may significantly impact the occurrence of autosomal recessive conditions and congenital anomalies. The degree of relatedness between two individuals defines the proportion of genes shared between them. Hence this study was planned to assess the awareness level, the association between awareness level and education, association between awareness level of and socioeconomic class.Methods: Direct interview through a self-structured questionnaire containing questions about demographic details, awareness of participants was conducted among (n=100) antenatal mothers attending SMC-OBG, OPD using convenient sampling. Knowledge of ≥50% is considered adequate. Data entry and analysis done using SPSS 16.0 software.  Descriptive statistics were calculated for background variables like socio-demographic characteristics. p value less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.Results: 54% have an educational qualification above high school. 58% belonged to the lower socioeconomic strata. 67% had adequate knowledge. Out of the 26 people who have had consanguineous marriage, 30.8% have 2’ consanguinity, 69.2% have 3’ consanguineous marriage. Participants having educational status above high school have 1.7 times more knowledge than lesser educational qualification. People of higher socioeconomic status have 3.2 times more knowledge than lower socioeconomic status. Association between knowledge with socioeconomic status is significant.Conclusions: The target population has divergent attitudes towards consanguinity, though the awareness was decently high among many of them. Strategies to disseminate information in school programmes should be taken into consideration. Couples in consanguineous relationships can be identified, provided with information about their risk and, if needed referred for genetic counselling.

A retrospective study to assess incidence of ectopic pregnancies in Saveetha Medical College and Hospital

Background: Ectopic pregnancy is an acute abdominal emergency causing maternal morbidity and mortality. The overall incidence of ectopic pregnancy is increasing in recent times but due to early diagnosis and management the case fatality rate has reduced. Aim of the study is to determine the incidence of ectopic pregnancies in Saveetha hospital and find out common risk factors.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by analysing the medical records of the patients admitted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology for 4 years from January 2015 to 2019 at Saveetha hospital, Chennai. The number of ectopic pregnancies out of the total pregnancies and the risk factors causing the ectopic pregnancies were analysed based on case sheets by simple descriptive statistics and percentage method.Result: Incidence was 3% or 30/1000 deliveries. The common age group was between 18 to 38 years. Mean age of ectopic pregnancy was 27.42 years. Risk factors were tubal ligation surgeries- 39.3%, Intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCD)-19.6%, Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)-16.1%, infertility and ovulation induction-10.7%, previous ectopic pregnancy and use of Oral contraceptive pills (OCP)-5.4% and previous induced abortions-3.6%.Conclusion: Incidence of ectopic pregnancy is still remaining on the significant numbers. It can be diagnosed early by keeping a high index of suspicion. Tubectomy and other surgeries should be done with proper care. Education regarding safe abortion, unsupervised usage of OCP and risk of ovulation induction to avoid ectopic pregnancies