Background: Maternal anemia has several deleterious effects on the health of the mother and fetus. This study was conducted to assess the effect of maternal anemia on cord blood hemoglobin and birth weight of the neonate. Aims and Objectives: To correlate maternal anemia with cord blood hemoglobin and to evaluate the birth weight of neonates. Methodology: A prospective hospital based study was conducted with 200 pregnant anemic female patients and their cord blood in D.Y Patel hospital, Neural in a period of 18 months. Results: It was observed that out of 200 pregnant females included in the study, 110 (55%) patients were mildly anemic while 80 (40%) and 10 (5%) patients were moderately and severely anemic respectively. The overall incidence of neonatal anemia was 19.5% in this study. It was found that 6 neonates born to severely anemic mothers, 18 neonates born to mothers with mild anemia and 15 neonates born to mothers with moderate anemia had anemia. This showed a significant association of maternal and cord hemoglobin. The incidence of Low birth weight neonates was 32% in this study, demonstrating a significant association of low birth weight with maternal anemia. It was observed that 54.7% of neonates had low birth weight born to mothers with moderate anemia while 6.3% and 35.7% neonates in the low birth weight category were of mothers with severe and mild anemia respectively. Conclusion: Maternal anemia affects both hemoglobin and birth weight of neonates. The present study found a linear relationship between maternal hemoglobin, cord blood hemoglobin with birth weight.
