Risk factors associated with pre-term birth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: a case-control study - Tanzania Journal of Health Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2016, pp. 1-8

Lack of a proper health care system in many developing countries takes a toll on its citizens. There are a lot of disease in developing countries that can be prevented by accessible healthcare. Inadequate health care can affect women, especially when talking about obstetric care. Obstetric care is very crucial and can lead to many complex pregnancies, and infant mortality.

Regular check-ups are important to ensure that the infant is healthy and that the pregnancy is going well. However, with people living in extreme poverty, it is not feasible to get regular checkups. It is important to get checkups as they ensure that the child and the mother are both healthy and don’t have any viruses. However, due to the lack of education on prenatal care, most women do not understand the importance of regular checkups. Therefore, it becomes important to examine the causes of preterm birth.

This article looks at preterm birth, which can be defined as the birth of an infant before the completion of 37 gestation weeks. This is a serious problem in obstetric care. This article looks at how in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania a case-controlled study was conducted to determine the risk factors of preterm births.

This case study was conducted in three municipal hospitals ( Amani, Mwanayamala and Temeke) and 377 women participants with preterm birth cases and term births were asked to participate. Short interviews were conducted to compare these females lifestyles demographics to examine whether cross-cultural factors affect birth.

Results show that certain risk factors are associated with preterm birth that includes multiple pregnancies, untreated vaginal discharge, public prenatal care, untreated unitary tract infection etc.

This study states that is important to have a planner design community-based intervention to tackle the complications of preterm birth.