ABSTRACT

Aims: To find out the socio-demographical and medical information of mothers, to determine the pregnancy related maternal factors relevant to cerebral palsy of children and to find out the association between sociodemographic characteristics with maternal factors related to children with cerebral palsy.

Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Sampling was done to select 159 cases through interview by using semi-structured questionnaires. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to generate descriptive statistics and cross tabulations with chi-square test were performed to explore associations between variables.

Result: Maternal age range 13–19 years and mean age was 20 years. Most of the respondents were mainly housewives. Total 62% of the respondent had cousin marriage. Mostly respondents were living in rural area (51%). Among the respondents 54% had secondary levels of education followed by primary & HSC completed level (11% each). Total 64% respondents had attended four or more antenatal visits. During pregnancy, history of rubella infection was found in 11%, hypertension in 12%, diabetes in 4%, convulsion in 10% and 30% of the respondents had history of anemia. Total 43% respondents had history of excess amniotic fluid loss before delivery and 38% respondents had fluid loss at 3rd trimester. History of trauma was present in 31% and history of fall down in 26%. There was significant association between maternal age and gestational diabetes (p<0.05); type of living area and history of trauma during pregnancy (p<0.05); educational level and number of taking antenatal visits (p<0.05); maternal age and number of antenatal visits (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study showed that cerebral palsy was more common in younger and older aged mothers. Cerebral palsy was associated with rural area and low number of antenatal visit. Maternal trauma was more common in rural and semi-urban area than urban area. Maternal education also positively influences utilization of antenatal visits. Maternal factors including gestational diabetes, hypertension, eclampsia, anemia, infection were not prominent factors of cerebral palsy. Socio demographic characteristics of children with CP were found important in this study.