Pre-eclampsia Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Kilifi County at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

Pre-eclampsia Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Kilifi County

• Pre-eclampsia (PE) and other hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are linked to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in both mothers and newborns. For PE to be effectively treated and managed, early identification is essential(Ndwiga et al., 2020)l. Pre-eclampsia prediction based on blood pressure, presence of protein in the urine, symptoms and laboratory test abnormalities can result in false-positive diagnoses. This may lead to unnecessary antenatal admissions and preterm delivery.
• Blood tests that measure placental growth factor (PlGF) or the ratio of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) to PlGF could aid the prediction of PE if either were added to routine clinical assessment or used as a replacement for proteinuria testing(Frampton et al., 2016). The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests supplementing with calcium to prevent PE(Omotayo et al., 2018); however, the factors influencing pregnant women's acceptance and acceptability of these recommendations have not been investigated within Kilifi County have not been examined.