Outcome of pregnancy during imprisonment

The scant available information on pregnancies in women in prison suggests that the outcome is poor. We studied a cohort of 69 incarcerated pregnant women cared for over a one-year period. They were compared with 69 controls who were matched for age, parity, race and date on which they entered prenatal care. Thirty-six percent of the prisoners acknowledged using illicit drugs, primarily cocaine, during their pregnancies as compared to 3% of the controls. Sixty-eight percent of the incarcerated women smoked cigarettes as compared with 20% of the controls. In spite of those facts, there was a tendency toward better pregnancy outcomes among the prisoners. They were less likely to deliver prematurely (10% vs. 22%) and significantly less likely to experience premature rupture of the membranes (2.8% vs. 2.6%, P less than .001).