Impact of Maternal Diabetes Mellitus on Early Morbidity and Mortality of Preterm Babies at Al Jala Maternity and Gynecology Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Tripoli, Libya)

الملخص

Studying burden of maternal diabetes mellitus on preterm babies is an important step to improve outcomes of these
babies. The study was designed to compare morbidity and mortality in preterm babies (28-36 wks) born to `mothers
with and without diabetes mellitus (DM).
An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at Al Jala Maternity Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(NICU) department; all preterm babies with gestational age (GA) (28-36 wks) were enrolled in the study, from
January 1st 2016 to December 31st 2016. The study sample was divided to two groups according to maternal
health; preterm infant of diabetic mother (IDM) and preterm non-IDM. The information retrieved and analyzed
were; sex, gestational age, birth weight, mode of delivery (MOD), Apgar score at 1st and 5th minute, hypoglycemia,
respiratory illness, hyperbilirubinemia, sepsis, major congenital anomalies , length of stay (LOS), and neonatal
death. Collected data coded and SPSS software was used for analysis.
A total of 378 preterm babies were enrolled in the study period divided into: preterm IDM group 79(20.9%)
babies and preterm non-IDM group 299(79.1%) babies. The preterm IDM group had significant high frequency of
large for gestational age (LGA) and unexpectedly significantly low frequency in respiratory diseases (P= 0.047),
perinatal asphyxia (P=0.021) and neonatal mortality (P=0.007); and no statistical significant difference in rate of
hyperbilirubinemia (P= 0.145), congenital anomalies (P= 0.187) and sepsis (P= 0.468).
Preterm babies born to diabetic mothers do not appear to be at an excess risk of mortality or early morbidity, except
for birth weight for which diabetic mothers need more antenatal care.