Study design and setting
This was a 1:3 hospital-based unmatched case-control study conducted from November 2018 to June 2019 at the maternity units of the BRH and LRH. The study included women who gave birth to a stillbirth (cases) at the BRH or LRH from January 2009 to February 2019. Three corresponding live births from 3 days before to 3 days after the index case from the same population served as controls to minimize selection bias. Women who did not give birth in hospitals and those with incomplete files were excluded from the study.
Buea and Limbe Regional Hospitals are the main referral secondary care centres found in the fastest growing towns in the South-West Region, which attract people from all walks of life. Buea is the regional headquarter of the southwest region. It is located at the eastern slopes of Mount Cameroon. It has an estimated population of above 90,088 inhabitants (2005 census) and a surface area of about 870 square Km. Buea health district is divided into seven health areas namely Bova, Buea Town, Bokwango, Tole, Buea Road, Muea and Molyko health areas. The main health facilities in the health area include Integrated Health Centre Bokwango, Muea District Hospital, Seventh Day Adventist Health Centre, St Monica Health Canter, St Veronica Medical Centre, Solidarity Health Foundation, Bebetta Memorial Community Hospital and Mount Mary Hospital. Each of these hospitals conducts an average of five deliveries per week. BRH serves as their main referral hospital. BRH is situated about 20 km from mile 17 Motor Park (the main entrance to Buea). BRH has a maternity unit with a capacity of 13 beds with three beds in the labour room. There are five (5) trained nurses; five (5) midwives and five (5) volunteer midwives. There are three obstetrician/gynaecologists and one general practitioner in the unit. The maternity unit conducts about 1059 deliveries per year with a cesarean section rate of 20.3%.
Limbe is a seaside town located in the southern slopes of Mount Cameroon and is the headquarters of Fako Division in the South West Region of Cameroon. It has a population of about 84,223 inhabitants (2005 census) and a surface area of 674 square km. Limbe health district is divided into eight health areas: Bota, Bojongo, Idenau, Moliwe, Mabeta, Limbe Sea Port, Zone 2, and Batoke health areas. The main health facilities in Limbe are Limbe District Hospital, Presbyterian Health Centre, Limbe Sub-divisional Hospital, Batoke Health Centre, Bonadikombo Integrated Health Centre, Viktoria Hope Foundation Medical Centre, Centre de Sante Inter-Urbain, and Tchenko Clinic. These health facilities conducted an average of 208 deliveries each per year and have as a main referral centre LRH. LRH is located at mile 1, about 13 km from the mile 4 Motor Park. The Regional Hospital in Limbe has a maternity unit with a capacity of twenty-six (26) beds. There are eight (8) midwives, seven (7) nurses and two (2) obstetrician/gynaecologists. The maternity conducts about 1200 deliveries per year.
BRH and LRH serve as teaching hospitals for the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea and provide emergency obstetric and neonatal care.
Both maternity units are equipped with instruments such as foetoscopes, foetal hand-held Doppler, and delivery beds. However, there are no instruments for continuous electronic intrapartum monitoring. Furthermore, the hospitals have well equipped operating theatres, blood banks, laboratories, and imaging units.
Data collection and analysis
Using the difference in proportions formula, =0.84 for a power of 80%, a significance of 0.05, Za = 1.96, proportion of cases exposed (estimated as 0.26 from a previous study) [11] and a ratio of 1:3, a minimum sample size of 576 (144 cases and 432 controls) was calculated.
A data collection form was developed and used to collect data from the selected files.
Files of cases (stillbirths) and their corresponding controls each (life births in the same period) that met the inclusion criteria were sorted out following consecutive sampling.
The data collection form consisted of three sections: Socio-demographic characteristics; Mother’s reproductive-obstetrical information; and maternal behaviours. To ensure confidentiality, participants’ personal information was coded. The outcome variables were stillbirth (fresh and macerated) and live birth. These were obtained from the delivery registers. The predictor variables were age, referral status, marital status, level of education, occupation, place of residence, parity, gestational age, number of antenatal care visits, gestational age at booking visit, haemoglobin concentration, number of babies, weight of baby, mode of delivery, duration of labour, history of stillbirth, medical illness, infections diagnosed during pregnancy (like malaria and HIV), obstetrical complications, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. These were all obtained from the patients’ files. Mode of delivery, level of education and place of residence were potential confounding variables.
The data were entered into a predesigned template in Epi info 7 and then exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Continuous variables such as age, GA, parity, number of antenatal care visits, gestational age at booking visit, and birth weight were categorized. All the missing data were coded but were not included in the final analysis.
The stillbirth rate was described as the number of stillbirths per 1000 births.
The risk factors associated with stillbirth were also described. A logistic regression analysis was used to identify demographic, medical and obstetrical risk factors independently associated with stillbirth. We adhered to STROBE guidelines/methodology.
Definition of term
A stillbirth is defined as birth with no sign of life, weighing at least 1000 g or at least 28 completed weeks of gestation.