Perinatal mortality in rural India with special reference to high risk pregnancies.

One-thousand-and-sixty-five pregnant mothers among a rural population of 30,000 in Uttar Pradesh were followed for 1 year. A still birth rate of 26.1 and perinatal mortality rate of 121.1 per thousand births were registered. Early neonatal mortality rate was found to be 97.4 per thousand live births. Twenty per cent of the women were identified with high risk factors. Inadequate or no antenatal care, bad obstetric history, and prolonged labour attributed to 13, 20, and 27 per cent of the risk, respectively, with a respective relative risk of 2.23, 3.1, and 4.09 times. These three factors were found to be the major and significant contributors to high perinatal mortality amongst the 'high risk' group. Selective extension of comprehensive M.C.H. Care to this group using the high risk approach is expected to lower perinatal mortality in rural community where M.C.H. services are far from optimum.