A study of newborn infants at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi

A study was carried out of 3165 newborn infants delivered consecutively from January to December, 1973 in the Department of Obstetrics, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. A prematurity rate of 24.3% and a perinatal mortality of 96/1000 was observed. The incidence of congenital defects was 2.5%. Study of high risk infants showed an average fasting blood sugar in infants of diabetic mothers at 65.9 mg% and none had hypoglycaemia symptoms. A high prematurity rate was found in infants of mothers with Anaemia (39%), Toxemia (43%) and Jaundice (73%). The incidence of congenital malformations was 8.5% in the infants of diabetic mothers.