Effect of Pregnancy on Hematological Profile of Female Subjects from a Private Hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Pregnancy is characterized by important variations in virtually every organ system to accommodate the growing and developing fetoplacental entity. Hence, the objective of this study is to assess the effect of pregnancy on hematological profile of female subjects attending a private hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria using eighty female volunteered individuals comprising sixty pregnant subjects and twenty nonpregnant subjects. The pregnant group was further categorized into three trimesters, each consisting of twenty participants. Results were presented as Mean ± SD and analyzed using GraphPad Prism 5 software (GraphPad Software Inc.), and p 0.05). The average values for white blood cells, granulocytes, red blood cells, hematocrit, and hemoglobin between second-trimester individuals and those of nonpregnant individuals exhibited a significant variance (p 0.05). the mean white blood cells, granulocytes, lymphocytes, red blood cells, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelet counts for the third-trimester subjects were significantly different (p < 0.05) when compared to the control subjects. The study outcome suggests that pregnancy affects hematological indices and may be a risk predictor for pregnancy-associated complications.