Pattern of Antepartum Haemorrhage at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Errata: Note that the original file was found to have errors. The erroneous file was removed and only the corrected file is now available for download (errata) The incidence of Antepartum Haemorrhage (APH) was 3.5%. Placenta praevia with an incidence of 2.0% constituted 58.4% of the cause of APH, followed by placental abruption with an incidence of 1.3% constituted 35.6% of the cause of APH. The most common presentation of APH was mild vaginal bleeding (22.3%), followed by combination of abdominal pains and vaginal bleeding (20.8%). APH accounted for 11.1% of maternal deaths and 19.2% of perinatal deaths in the study period. Early pregnancy bleeding (bleeding in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy) and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia were most commonly associated with placenta praevia and placental abruption respectively. It is to be noted that APH remains a dangerous complication of pregnancy with high maternal and perinatal morbidities and mortalities. Keywords: Antepartum haemorrhage, placenta praevia, placental abruption: pattern and management