Contends that a mother's feelings toward her pregnancy may be a
matter of life or death for her baby. What researchers learned about
babies born of unwanted pregnancies; Researcher Ann Coker; Report in
'American Journal of Public Health' Vol. 84, No. 3.
By
PT Staff, published on July 01, 1994
PREGNANCY
Want to know how bad an attitude can be? A mother's feelings toward
her pregnancy may be a matter of life or death for her newborn.
Epidemiologists from the University of South Carolina found that
infants born of unwanted pregnancies are more than twice as likely to die
within a month of life than wanted infants.
The infant death rates can't be explained by income or access to
health care, according to epidemiologist Ann Coker. "We studied a group
of married, largely middle-income women who were all receiving prenatal
care within the first to early second trimester."
Nor can the deaths be pinned on low birth weight or congenital
anomalies, typical predictors of ill health, which were not found to be
factors for the women studied. The researchers used data from a 1960s
study of 8,823 pregnant women in a California HMO.
Coker doesn't believe that maternal attitude is directly
responsible for neonatal death. The mothers may have been reckless with
diet and drinking, but the study provided too few data in that area to
tell, the researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health
(Vol. 84, No. 3).
Because the data were gathered before Roe v. Wade--when abortion
was not an option--and upon a relatively well-off population, the
research goes right to the heart of the abortion debate. Coker sees the
study as more "evidence suggesting that family planning, contraceptive
choice, and abortion for women who choose it, are important for the
health of mother and child.
Unwantedness not only increases the short-term risk for infant
death, but, as Eastern European studies show, may have lifelong
consequences of child abuse and behavioral problems."
PHOTO: Bad behavior and a worse attitude in a pregnant woman can be
life threatening.
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