Abstract

Background: The incidence of elective cesarean delivery (ECD) at term is rapidly increasing in the last decades, which,is significantly contributing to neonatal respiratory morbidity.,
Objective: To study the risk of respiratory morbidity in neonates delivered by ECD at term.,Material and Methods: Descriptive prospective hospital-based study involving 511 women who delivered by ECD at term,in Khartoum Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Omdurman Maternity Hospital (OMH). The cases of this study include all singleton,neonates born to mothers delivered by ECD at (37–40 weeks) of gestation at OMH and KTH between April 1, 2010,,and February 28, 2011. The study cases were neonates born to mothers delivered by ECD at 37–40 weeks’ gestation.,Cases were matched for gestational age, maternal age, parity, baby weight, and maternal body weight. Apgar score and,examination of the neonates were carried out and recorded by the pediatric team.,Result: The majority of women recruited in this study delivered at 38–39 weeks’ gestational age, and their ages were,between 26 and 30 years. Results showed that most of the babies delivered with weight <2.5 kg had increased respiratory,morbidity. Also, there were some differences in outcome regarding neonatal gender having respiratory morbidity; boys,were found to be more affected than girls. Finally, the results showed that 7.2% of the delivered babies had respiratory,problems.,Conclusion: Neonatal respiratory morbidity has been shown to be decreased with increasing gestational age and,increasing neonatal weight in ECD at term.