P-02 Birth Rates in East Trinidad during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Author(s):
A Bridgelal-Gonzales, S Mahabir , D Geelalsingh
Year of Presentation:
2024
Objective: To assess the birth rates in East Trinidad during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study was performed. Study population was persons living in East Trinidad 2018–2022, All pregnancies, live births and stillbirths were included. Miscarriages and intrauterine fetal demise were excluded. Data was collected from 16 primary care health centers in counties St. Andrews/St. David and Nariva/Mayaro and one tertiary care unit, the Sangre Grande Hospital (SGH) in East Trinidad, from January 2018 to December 2022. The fol- lowing variables were collected and analyzed in Microsoft® Excel® version 27: the yearly birth rate in East Trinidad, the rate of teenage pregnancies, and the number of Caesarean sections, stillbirths and antenatal clinic attendances.
Results: In East Trinidad 2018–2022, a 5–10% decrease in birth rate per 1000 was observed per annum (19.0 for 2018, 18.1 for 2019, 16.2 for 2020, 15.0 for 2021, 13.4 for 2022) representing a 29.5% decline overall in the 5year period. For the 5year period, an overall decline was observed for the following variables: the rate of teenage pregnancy (32.0, 31.2, 27.7, 25.6, 18.4), the number of Caesarean sections, performed (478, 485, 469, 401, 346), the number of first visits to antenatal clinic at both primary care (1455, 1521, 1287, 1281, 1274) and tertiary care (710, 655, 602, 517, 510). Return visits to tertiary care was also reduced from 2018 (n=5056) to 2021 (n=2484). The number of stillbirths was low over the 5 year period (from 8 to 3).