The Association of Life Events to Gestational Age at Delivery Among Low-income, Urban, African American Women

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of life events stress to gestational age at delivery for a cohort of low income, African-American women.

STUDY DESIGN: Four hundred seventy-two African-American women from three public prenatal clinics were interviewed about life events, emotional support, and health habits. Pregnancy and birth data were collected from a clinical data base. The contribution of life events stress and other study variables to length of pregnancy was determined using linear regression models for primiparous and multiparous women.

RESULTS: Frequency of life events was not related to gestational age at delivery, directly or indirectly. An unexpected finding was that women who experienced a death of a mother or sister delivered on average 4.6 weeks earlier than other women in the study. Complications of pregnancy also explained lower gestational age for both primiparas and multiparas.

CONCLUSION: Among low-income women, the acute stressor of losing a mother or sister during pregnancy was significantly related to shorter pregnancy, although total number of events was not.