This study assessed the effectiveness of a prenatal home visitation program in reducing adverse birth outcomes among socially disadvantaged pregnant women and adolescents. The risk of delivering a low-birth weight baby was significantly lower for the intervention group. The risk was further reduced for mothers who were exposed to the intervention at a gestational age of 24 weeks or fewer.
This study examines the hypothesis that ; independent of other factors, being black increased the risk of extreme preterm birth and its frequency of recurrence at a similar gestational age. The study found that recurrent black preterm births occurred at increased frequency and at an earlier gestation age (median age: 31 weeks versus 33 weeks), when compared with white births.
The researchers identified psychosocial predictors of having low-birth weight infants among mothers enrolled in the Louisiana WIC Program. Among blacks, mothers with an eighth grade education or less had the highest risk of having underweight infants. Among whites, those who initiated prenatal care in the third trimester were most likely to have underweight infants.
The aim of this study was to explore whether conditions of mothers; neighbourhood of residence contributed to adverse birth outcomes, independent of individual-level determinants. Results suggested that measures of neighbourhood economic conditions were associated with both fetal growth and the length of gestation, independent of individual-level factors.
The researchers examines the effects of prenatal participation in the New York State WIC Program on birth weight through enhanced control of selection bias and gestational age bias. Adjusted estimates showed a significant positive effect of longer prenatal WIC participation on birth outcomes for all of the groups studied.
The goal of this study was to determine whether perceived levels of social support affected birth weight. Data suggested that infants born to African-American mothers were, on average, 297 grams lighter than those born to white mothers. For African-American mothers only, the mean birth weight decreased significantly as the neighborhood level of economic disadvantage increased. A positive association between perceived levels of social support and birth weight was found for white mothers only.
This study examines the extent to which pregnant women participating in the WIC Program were counseled by their healthcare providers to stop drinking alcohol during pregnancy. A second purpose was to identify characteristics associated with alcohol consumption post recognition of pregnancy. The results showed that women who were most likely to receive advice were black non-Hispanic and Hispanic, were Spanish speaking, were less educated, were on public assistance, and had a higher number of alcohol-related risk behaviors.
The present study had two aims: (1) to examine the prevalence rates of prenatal alcohol consumption in a group of women participating in WIC in Southern California, with special emphasis on Hispanic women, and (2) to identify variables associated with postconception drinking in low-income minority women. Results suggested that it was important to screen low-income minority pregnant women in a community setting, to initiate interventions to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome and related conditions.
This study investigated the association between WIC participation and breastfeeding behaviors among white and black women in Mississippi. analysis of data from the 2004;2008 Mississippi Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System revealed that 52.2 % of white women and 82.1 % of black women participated in WIC. A total of 60.4 % of white women and 39.7 % of black women initiated breastfeeding, and 26.5 % and 21.9 %, respectively, were breastfeeding at 10 weeks postpartum. WIC participation was negatively associated with breastfeeding initiation among whites, but not blacks.
This study analyzed mothers reports of breastfeeding care experiences from pregnancy through infancy. The results showed that mothers often felt that the education and support they received was cursory and inadequate. Some mothers received misinformation or encountered practitioners who were hostile or indifferent to breastfeeding. Mothers were not often given referrals to available resources, even after reporting breastfeeding challenges.
