Abstract:

Background: Preterm labor is a major of infant mortality and morbidity. Complications of preterm labor may be followed by a lifetime disability; also taking care of premature infant needs a wide range of equipment and services.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and identifying the associated factors of preterm labor among women delivered at Sekou Toure RRH in Mwanza region.

Study design and data collection: The prospective cross-sectional study was employed and data was collected from mothers who gave birth at S/toure RRH, and Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, chi-square test was used for continuous variables. The p-value of 0.05 with 95% confidence interval was employed to measure the power of the study.

Results: This study involved 150 women who gave birth at S/Toure RRH with a mean age of 19-24. From, this study the prevalence of preterm labor is 32 (21.3%), among all women who had preterm labor only 4 (12.5%) had multiple pregnancies and 28 (87.5%) had single tone pregnancies. Moreover, this study reveals that 4 (12.5% and 3 (9.4%) of participants had family and personal history of preterm labor respectively while the rest 28 (87.5%) and 29 (90.6%) had no any family or personal history of preterm labor.

Conclusion: This study shows that the prevalence of preterm labor is still high and factors associated to it are widely diverse since the implementation of a focused antenatal clinic found all over the country. More studies are important to assess the factors and come up with a research based solution.