Tuesday November 23, 2004

Massive Study Finds Negative Pregnancy Outcomes Associated with Non-Married Status

OTTAWA, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as pre-term birth, low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age, stillbirth, and neonatal and post-neonatal mortality have been found to be more common in mothers living in common-law unions than those in traditional marriage relationships, according to a Statistics Canada study of pregnancy outcomes in Quebec.

Statistics Canada, the government statistical service, notes that the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes among common-law mothers are of great public health concern because of the high and increasing proportion of births to mothers in common-law unions. In 1997, 44% of births in Quebec were to common-law mothers, more than double the proportion in 1990.

The authors explained that some of the differences in adverse pregnancy outcomes may be related to maternal smoking, which is more common among women in common law-unions compared with those who are legally married. Additionally, mothers in common-law unions may also experience greater stress during pregnancy owing to less stable relationships than those in traditional marriage.

The study Disparities in Pregnancy Outcomes According to Marital and Cohabitation Status, was published in Obstetrics and Gynecology. It was based on a birth cohort-based study of all 720,586 births registered in Quebec for the years 1990 to 1997.

An abstract of the study is available online at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15172868

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URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04112303.html

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