Research

While home births rose an average of 2% from 1990 to 2019, they jumped 22% between 2019 and 2020, said Elizabeth Gregory, a researcher who co-authored the report. The findings offered another view of the pandemic’s effects on maternal health and how, of the nearly 52,000 home births recorded last year, the greatest increases were among Black and Hispanic women. 

The Rural & Minority Health Research Center published this Findings Brief in August 2022 reporting disparities in geographic access to health services for places that have a relatively high proportion of residents from minoritized racial and ethnic groups. 

Researchers aimed to assess how race and ethnicity impact maternal and perinatal outcomes among U.S.-born and foreign-born women. The researchers found that compared to foreign-born women, U.S.-born women had a higher risk of adverse perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth, hypertensive disorders, low birth weight at term, and NICU admission. 

This study evaluated the influence of prenatal exercise on racial/ethnic disparities in gestational age, birthweight, and risks of preterm birth, cesarean section, and low-birthweight neonates. The study concluded that prenatal exercise may attenuate the racial/ethnic disparities observed.

This study by Lynn Rempel and John Rempel in 2004 examined the influence of partners on breastfeeding and found that despite not being directly involved in the act of breastfeeding, partners’ opinions of breastfeeding influence women’s breastfeeding intentions, initiation, and duration. The study recommends including partners in health education to improve breastfeeding outcomes.

This study assessed and compared prenatal care adequacy among women without disabilities and women with physical, sensory, and intellectual/developmental disabilities. The results demonstrate that among women with disabilities, there are differences in prenatal care adequacy based on disability status. They emphasize that inequitable access to prenatal care for women with disabilities, especially those with intellectual/developmental disabilities, must be addressed.

Researchers analyzed information from the Listening to Mothers in California Survey and found that perceived discrimination was related to lower postpartum visit attendance and a lower probability of discussing birth control, depression, and breastfeeding. 

This study provides a systematic review the impacts of breastfeeding interventions targeting ethnic/racial minority women in the U.S.

Irth - Birth without the Bias: A Mini-Manual to Pregnancy and Childbirth for Black People

Limited research has examined factors that impact access to postpartum mental healthcare. We investigated the predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with postpartum consultation for mental health concerns in US mothers with or without depressive symptoms and examined potential disparities in access.

Despite general improvements, this study finds that severe maternal morbidity continues to contribute to excess maternal mortality among racial and ethnic minorities.

This study assessed the effectiveness of solution-focused counseling in terms of reducing violence and improving the quality of life of women who have previously experienced domestic violence.

The authors aimed to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's access to contraceptive services, desire for pregnancy, and economic conditions.

A comparative risk analysis of neonatal deaths averted by kangaroo mother care versus mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection

This quasi-experimental retrospective study aimed to assess whether participating in the Arizona Health Start Programme reduced rates of low birth weight (LBW), very LBW (VLBW), extremely LBW (ELBW), and preterm birth (PTB). 

The quality and quantity of families’ support systems during pregnancy can affect maternal and fetal outcomes. The support systems of expecting families can include many elements, such as family members, friends, and work or community groups. Emerging health information technologies (eg, social media, internet websites, and mobile apps) provide new resources for pregnant families to augment their support systems and to fill information gaps.

This research article, published in 2020, presents the findings of a qualitative study that explored the factors influencing women’s diet and physical activity during pregnancy, and aimed to identify the needs of these women with regards to lifestyle support. The authors concluded that lifestyle interventions in pregnancy should be adapted to meet the needs of individuals with different health identities, and encouraging a change in health identity may be one way of supporting sustained change in health behaviors. 

This study addresses this issue by estimating within-family models on a sample of 4.5 million births from 77 countries at various levels of development. We show that after unobserved maternal heterogeneity is controlled for, intervals shorter than 36 months substantially increase the probability of infant death. However, the importance of birth intervals as a determinant of infant mortality varies inversely with maternal education and the strength of the relationship varies regionally. 

Interpregnancy care aims to maximize a woman’s level of wellness not just in between pregnancies and during subsequent pregnancies, but also along her life course. Because the interpregnancy period is a continuum for overall health and wellness, all women of reproductive age who have been pregnant regardless of the outcome of their pregnancies (ie, miscarriage, abortion, preterm, full-term delivery), should receive interpregnancy care as a continuum from postpartum care. 

New Evidence from Linked Administrative Data: Health economists at Stanford University use linked administrative data that combines the universe of California birth records, hospitalizations, and death records with parental income from Internal Revenue Service tax records and the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics file to provide novel evidence on economic inequality in infant and maternal health.

This survey was conducted by the United States Lactation Consultant Association in 2019 to better understand the demographics of the lactation profession in the United States.

New analysis of information on death certificates from 2016 to 2017 revealed that the maternal mortality rate among non-Hispanic Black women was 3.5 times higher than among non-Hispanic white women.

Researchers studied racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality in the United States. They found that the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 3.55 times that of non-Hispanic white women. 

This study, published in October 2022, examined the impact of Arizona’s Health Start Program, a community health worker (CHW) home visiting intervention, on prenatal care utilization among an ethno-racially and geographically diverse cohort of women. It concluded that a CHW-led perinatal home visiting intervention operated through a state health department can improve prenatal care utilization among demographically and socioeconomically disadvantaged women and reduce maternal and child health inequity.

This study reinforces the case that doula involvement is a cost-effective method to improve outcomes for mothers and infants. The study also demonstrates that doulas can have an impact beyond the birth process itself and the mother’s experience of the birth.

Perinatal health is beginning to be recognized as an essential part of perinatal health. In this paper, an international team of paternal perinatal mental health experts summarize key findings in the field and provide an overview of paternal perinatal mental health, leading tools to assess paternal depression and anxiety, the impact of paternal mental health on mother and child health, and future directions for the field. 

Data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 US States, 2017-2019.

The article highlights the importance of educating women about adverse outcomes that can occur during pregnancy. Including increasing prevalence of cannabis-related diagnosis (CRD) from 2011 to 2017, increased risk of all maternal and infant outcomes assessed from CRD, strongest effects for prematurity and gastrointestinal malformations, and stronger effects when another substance-related diagnosis accompanied CRD.

This study concluded that interventions designed to raise breastfeeding rates in the study site community would ideally be grounded in tribal resources and involve a collaborative approach that engages the greater community, grandmothers, health care professionals, and scientific partners varying skills. 

This report provides an overview of maternity care in California, reviews the state’s performance by demographic groups, over time, and in comparison with national numbers.