Pregnancy in Jamaican women with homozygous sickle cell disease: fetal and maternal outcome

ABSTRACT

The outcome of 664 pregnancies in 297 Jamaican women with homozygous sickle cell (SS) disease during the period 1959-84 was reviewed. Overall, the spontaneous abortion rate was 118/1000 pregnancies, the stillbirth rate 128/1000 births, and perinatal mortality 171/1000 births. There was a striking secular increase in both spontaneous abortions and stillbirths accounted for, in part, by a trend for abortions to increase with maternal age up to the age of 30, a greater proportion of patients in the high-risk group, ages 25-29, occuring during 1980-84. Another factor contributing to the poor obstetric performance during the 1980-84 period was probably an increased survival and pregnancy rate in high-risk patients. 7 women had pregnancy-related deaths giving a pregnancy mortality rate of 1.1 percent.(AU)