Risk factors of birth trauma of new born babies in al-kansaa maternity and pediatric teaching hospital in mosul

Background: Birth trauma can be defined as injury to infant resulting from mechanical forces (such as compression or traction) during the process of birth. Objectives: To identify the risk factors associated with birth trauma and to find out the most common type of birth trauma in our locality. Patients and methods: A prospective case control study conducted over a ten months period from the 1st of March to the 31st of December 2006 in Al-kansaa maternity and pediatric teaching hospital in Mosul on 240 babies aged between (0-72 hours) of both gender (120 babies delivered with birth trauma and 120 babies delivered without birth trauma for the control group). Results: Birth trauma is found in 0.8% of the total deliveries in our study. Trauma of cranium was the most Common type of birth trauma, of which caput succedaneum (42.5%) was the most common one. Conclusion: The significance of any of the risk factors whether related to mothers, the babies or the labor, leads us to identify the birth trauma earlier that prompts us to urgent diagnostic and therapeutic measures to decrease the morbidity and mortality.