Background: Pregnancy and childbirth still involve risk for pregnant women and their babies and health in the perinatal period remains an important public health priority. This study addresses the question of perinatal health in Umbria region.
Methods: Data were obtained from the administrative source of the regional Standard Certificate of Live Births in Umbria in 2012. We used population data, which merges data from each mother and her baby for a total of 7964 records. To describe perinatal health we considered pathological pregnancy, fetal growth defect, birth weight, gestational age, Apgar scores at 5 minutes and stillbirth such as indicators of Maternal and Neonatal Health in according with population characteristics and risk factors (maternal age, parity, mothers' educational level and mothers' country of birth).
Results: In Umbria, in 2012 we have: - 29 stillbirths corresponding to a rate of stillbirths of 3.52 ‰ (stillbirths per 1000 births) - a perinatal mortality rate ( stillbirths and deaths in the first week of life) of 4.9 per 1000 live births and stillbirths - an Infant mortality rate (within the first year of life) of 2.5 per 1000 live births The 1.4 % of infants underwent neonatal resuscitation. This percentage detects an indicative Apgar score of important neonatal suffering (0-3) in the 1% of neonates. The frequency of infants with birth weight less than 2500 grams (LBW) was 6.4 %, with higher values in females (7.3%) than males (2.7%). The frequency of infants with birth weight less than 1500 grams is 0.8%. The preterm birth (<37 weeks of gestation) rate is 6.3% of the total: 5.6% are pregnancies among the 32 and 36 weeks of gestation and 0.7% are pregnancies under the 32nd week of gestation. The pathological pregnancies are 7.9% and the Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR) is 2.7%. The health perinatal indicators considered were different in different population subgroups. The most representative population was Italian women (76.8%), with maternal age between 25-34 years (56.4%), primiparous (61.9%) and mothers with medium education levels (48.1%).
Conclusions: Results highlight the existence of differences in perinatal health. Worse maternal condition and neonatal status were observed especially for less advantaged social classes (i.e., foreign or poorly educated). Such inequalities should be examined in all areas of public policy and public services, to ensure equal opportunity for all.
Keywords: Maternal health; Neonatal health; Perinatal health; Preterm birth.