A formal permission to conduct the study was obtained from the authorities of the hospital and consent was taken from study participant. All the full term pregnant women in latent stage of labor admitted during the study period were included. Pregnant women with twins and chronic diseases leading to anemia such as renal, cardiac, lung diseases and haemoglobinopathies were excluded.

The information like age, age at marriage, age at first pregnancy, education, occupation, per capita income, type of family, diet, obstetric score, history of abortion, interval between previous and present pregnancy, history of blood transfusion in this pregnancy, duration of present pregnancy, duration of IFA tablets taken, previous Hb% etc was collected by interviewing the subjects by using pre-designed, pre-tested structured schedule.

Later, Hemoglobin estimation was done by Shali’s method. Anemia was classified according to WHO criteria [3]. Hemoglobin concentration of 10.0-10.9 gm/dl 7-10.0 gm/dl and less than 7.0 gm/dl were considered to indicate mild, moderate and severe anemia respectively. All those pregnant women with any associated illness like pregnancy induced hypertension, Rhesus factor negative, gestational diabetes mellitus, Preterm and post term pregnancy and twin pregnancy were excluded.

For convenience, socio-economic status of the study subjects was classified into class I (>6100rs), class II (3050 - 6099), class III (1830 – 3049), class IV (915 – 1829) and class V (<915) by using B.G. Prasad classification based on All India Consumer Price Index of September 2015 i.e. 266 (correction factor = 22.82) [5].

Sample size: The minimum sample size required for this study was estimated by assuming confidence interval of 95% and 10% margin of error and a prevalence of 58% for anemia among pregnant women as per National Family Health survey –III (NFHS) in India [6]. Accordingly, the minimum sample size required for the study was 98.

However, the present study included 130 cases to increase the power of study. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version. The continuous and categorical data were expressed as mean + Standard Deviation and number of patients respectively. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Average age of the cases was 23.24 + 3.06 years ranging from 18 to 32 years. The mean age at marriage was 19 .27 + 1.83 years and that at first pregnancy was 20.75 + 2.19 years. The mean gestational age was 39.17 + 1.11 weeks. Average interval between previous and index pregnancies was 31.74 + 20.76 months.

those from nuclear families (90.6%), those who were housewives (89.1%) and having vegetarian diet (94.4%). Table 3 depicts the obstetric and hemoglobin profile of study participants. High prevalence of anemia among those pregnant women at labor whose age at marriage was between 18- 21 years (90%) and age at first pregnancy was less than 18 years (100%). However, this difference was statistically not significant. There was significant higher prevalence of anemia among those cases less than one year of spacing between previous and index pregnancies (90%), those who did not receive iron folic acid (IFA) tablets (100%) and among those who took IFA tablets from both government and private institutions (94.3%).

1.5% by Noronha J A et al [1] and 2.2% by Bentley M E et al [11]. The prevalence of anemia was significantly more in those studied up to secondary education and below Class IV socio economic status, similar to that reported by Viveki R G et al [3], Yadav R K et al [5] and by Taner C E et al [9].

Socio economic status reported similar to this study by Gautam V P et al [12]. Mean hemoglobin level among the pregnant women at labor were 9.3 + 1.24 gm/dl ranging between 5.7 to 12.9, Ansari N B et al [7] reported 9.9 + 1.0 gm/dl, while R G Viveki et al [3] reported 9.6 + 1.63 gm/dl ranging between 5.1 to 12.4 gm/dl.

As observed in this study, still a very high proportions of pregnant women (88.4%) were found to be delivering in anemic status, is an indicator of the failure of national and WHO Programmes to address this problem. Socio- economic status, literacy status of women, child spacing and IFA tablets intake were significantly associated with anemia in this study.

Therefore, monitoring the compliance of women with ante- natal care services and strengthening of their health care seeking behavior are important health care measures to be undertaken at the community level. It is time for realization that health system should focus on various factors that contribute to anemia and include them as an important indicator in the national health care policy.

Authors extend sincere thanks to all the participants and staff of the Department of Community Medicine and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences, Belagavi for co- operating during the study period. Authors are grateful to thank the beloved Director, Dr. S T Kalsad, Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences, Belagavi for permitting to conduct the present study.