Abstract

Normal pregnancy associated with many changes in coagulation profile. These changes are important for intrapartum blood loss and also for thromboembolism during pregnancy, labour and puerperium. From various studies it is well known that quantitative and qualitative changes in platelets play an important part in thrombotic and haemorhagic states. So present study aimed at to find out any quantitative change in platelet functions during pregnancy, labour and puerperium.

This study was carried out in the Department of physiology, AMC, Dibrugarh, Assam. 50 cases of pregnant, 50 in labour, 50 in puerperium. and 50 non-pregnant women of child bearing age group are enroll for my study. For platelet functions we consider two key tests platelet count and bleeding time. In my study mean platelet count decreases in pregnancy and labour than that of non-pregnant but again the count increases in puerperium. But mean bleeding time increases in pregnancy but the count was low during labour and again it increases in puerperium. It is partly due to hemodilution and partly due to increased platelet activation and accelerated clearance (Shehlata et al., 1999 and McCrae, 2010).To conclude thromboembolism and bleeding disorder are two major complications of pregnancy to puerperium . So to prevent the complication proper study of coagulation profile is necessary.

Keywords: Platelet count, bleeding time, thromboembolism, pregnancy, labour and puerperium,