Assessment of Out-of-Hospital Deliveries Admitted to 112 Emergency Healthcare Ambulance Services

Abstract

This study aims to assess the pregnant admitted to 112 Emergency Healthcare Services (EHS) for out-of-hospital deliveries. With this study, it is expected to contribute to the planning of EHS for pregnant woman admitted to 112 EHS and to the measurements to be taken to decrease the need for emergency admissions. All pregnant women (n=205) who were admitted to Ankara 112 Emergency Healthcare Ambulance Services due to out-of-hospital delivery between 2017 and 2019 were included in the study. The data of the pregnant women on place of delivery, total number of deliveries in the past, year of delivery, district of admission, nationality, and status of follow-ups in family physician were obtained from available records in the EHS through file scanning. Median age of mothers who were included in the study due to out-of-hospital delivery was 25 (minimum-maximum:16-44) years. Of all pregnant women, 79.5% (n=163) gave birth in their house and 15.6% (n=32) in the ambulance. Of the pregnant women who underwent out-of-hospital delivery in our study, most frequently 30.2% (n=62) gave birth to their second child and 18.5% (n=38) to their third child. Of the pregnant women, 72.7% (n=149) applied from a central district of the capital, and 27.3% (n=56) from a peripheral district. Whether the pregnant women had made their pregnancy follow-up visits in primary healthcare services during their pregnancy was evaluated and it was found that 39 (19%) out of the pregnant who had never made their follow-up visits were foreign nationals, which accounted for 52.7% of foreign national pregnant women, 21 (10.2%) were Turkish citizens, which accounted for 16% of all Turkish pregnant women. There was a statistically significant relationship between nationality and pregnancy follow-ups (p<0.001). In our study, the majority of the mothers who underwent out-of-hospital delivery had given birth before, lived in a central district, and had not substantially made their pregnancy follow-up visits. The rate of foreign national mothers who made their pregnancy follow-up visits was lower. In terms of age, foreign national mothers who underwent out-of-hospital delivery were younger than Turkish mothers. Our study results reveal that immigrants have low application rates to health institutions in our country regarding pregnancy follow-up and birth with their low pregnancy follow-up rate and high numbers of out-of-hospital births compared to their population.