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3.2 The Mother Ethnicity as identified by the mother was reported as 64.4 Malays, 10.6 Chinese, 8.7
Indians, 1.4 Orang Asli, 4.0 Bumiputra Sabah, 4.4 Bumiputra Sarawak, 0.5 other Malaysians and 6.0 foreigners. Table 6
Ethnic distribution of the population in Malaysia in 2004 was reported as 50.4 Malays, 23.7 Chinese, 7.1 Indians, 11
indigenous and 7.8 others Information and Documentation Unit, Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia.
Single mothers accounted for 109 cases 1.5 in the study out of which 24 22.0 died. Table 7 This is identical to an overall mortality of 23.5 in the whole group.
The mean maternal age in the study group was 30 +- 7 years. Table 8
3.3 Antenatal events 3.3.1 Antenatal corticosteroids
Corticosteroids are administered to the mother to enhance the maturation of her baby’s lungs when it is thought she will deliver before 34 weeks’ gestation. The first randomized
controlled trail of steroid use was in New Zealand in 1970 Liggins Howie, 1972. A systematic review reported antenatal steroids to be efficacious in helping to promote
maturation of the lungs and preventing death Crowley, 2003. This therapy also has other beneficial effects such as reduction of the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis,
without harmful effects for mother and baby. The Perinatal Society of Malaysia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Malaysia has recommended that maternal
corticosteroids should be considered before all births at less than 34 weeks in order to improve neonatal outcomes. PSM Clinical Practice Guidelines, 1995 updated 2001
This therapy was given to mothers of 2219 61.2 out of 3630 babies 34 weeks note babies 32-33 weeks who are not VLBW, and did not require ventilatory support or not
died were not included in the study and 60.3 32 weeks. Table 1 3.4 The baby
3.4.1 Multiple births There were 6696 91.1 singletons, 597 8.1 twins, 54 0.7 triplets and 1
quadruplet in the study. Table 9 The proportion of males in the study of 42597350 i.e. 57.9 compared to females of
30647350 i.e. 41.7 . Sex was indeterminate in 27 babies 0.4 Fig 3. Sex ratio at birth of all babies in the country was estimated at 1.07 male 1 female in 2005
Information and Documentation Unit, Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia. Relatively more males admitted in the study implied that babies of the
male sex were at higher risk of being critically ill at birth.
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Fig 3. Case distribution according to sex, 2004
58 42
Males Females
Indeterminate
3.5 Birth 3.5.1 Inborn vs. Outborn Babies
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