Perinatal Mortality-One Year Analysis at Tertiary Care Hospital of Peshawar

Objective: to calculate the perinatal mortality rate in one unit of tertiary care hospital and to find out the various demographic and maternal risk factors leading to it.material and methods: this descriptive study was conducted in the gynae (b) unit of post graduate medical institute lady reading hospital peshawar for a period of one year from t' june, 1991 to 31 may 1992. a prospective review of all still births from 28 weeks of pregnancy or having birth weight 1000gm (2.2lbs) and early neonatal deaths within the first week of life was done.results: according to the results of the study, the perinatal mortality rate was 192 / 1000 births (512 perinatal deaths / 2667 total births). still birth accounted for 84.5 % of perinatal deaths while 15.5% were early neonatal deaths. the leading cause of still births was mechanical disorder of labour (137 (31.6%) still births) forward by antepartum hemorrhage (112 (25.8%) cases of still births.) hypertension of mother was responsible in 80 (18.4%) cases. congenital malformation contributed to 8.50% of perinatal deaths. the leading causes of neonatal deaths were birth asphyxia (60%) and prematurity (45%). in 12% of cases no cause could be found out.conclusion: this study shows a high perinatal mortality rate 19.2% of which still birth was commonest cause (84.5%) followed by congenital malformations (8.5%)