The preterm prediction study: Maternal stress is associated with spontaneous preterm birth at less than thirty-five weeks' gestation☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
MATERIAL AND METHODS
This investigation is part of a prospective study of numerous predictors of spontaneous prematurity performed by the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development between October 1992 and July 1994. The obstetric population at each of the 10 participating centers was characterized as to parity and race before the study. Participants were selected to represent the population at each participating center without regard to medical or
RESULTS
Demographic characteristics of the population are shown in Table I. The mean maternal age was 22.6 years and the mean education was 11.9 years. Sixty-three percent of the women were black, 35% white, 1% Hispanic, <1% Asian, and 1% other. Sixteen percent of the population had a previous preterm birth, of which 12.4% were spontaneous preterm births. One hundred women (3.9%) had a spontaneous preterm birth at <35 weeks' gestation, and the rate of preterm birth <37 weeks was 15.5%. The percent of
COMMENT
Some previous reports have shown that various maternal psychosocial characteristics such as stress, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and poor social support increase a woman's risk of LBW2, 3, 4, 5 and pregnancy complications.18, 19 However, other reports have not confirmed this association.1, 6, 7 Limitations of previous studies include retrospective designs, small sample sizes, and imprecise definitions of outcome variables. These problems make interpretation of individual studies and
Acknowledgements
Members of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network are James M. Roberts, MD, Magee Women's Research Institute (chairman); John C. Hauth, MD, Robert L. Goldenberg, MD, Rachel Copper, MSN, CRNP, and Allison Northen, RN, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Paul J. Meis, MD, Eberhard Mueller-Heubach, MD, Melissa Swain, RN, and Allison Frye, RN, Bowman Gray School of Medicine; Atef H. Mowad, MD, Marshall Lindheimer, MD, and Phyllis Jones,
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From the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network. A complete list of members and affiliations appears at the end of the article.
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Reprints not available from the authors.
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