Adverse pregnancy outcomes among foreign-born Canadians

Numerous non-Canadian studies have shown that immigrant women experience higher rates of adverse maternal and perinatal events than the general non-immigrant population. Limited information about the pregnancy outcomes of immigrant Canadian women is available.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study at St. Michael's Hospital between October 2002 and June 2006 to estimate the risk of adverse obstetrical and perinatal outcomes among foreign-born women residing in Toronto. The main study outcomes were the incidences of preterm delivery between 32 and 36 completed weeks' gestation, low infant birth weight, and delivery by Caesarean section.

Compared with Canadian-born women, those who were foreign-born had an associated adjusted odds ratio of 0.85 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.14) for preterm delivery, 1.92 (95% CI 1.29 to 2.85) for low infant birth weight, and 1.16 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.34) for delivery by Caesarean section.

In this study, foreign-born women had a non-significantly lower risk of preterm birth, but a significantly higher risk of low birth weight infants and Caesarean section than Canadian-born women. In this urban setting, recent immigrant women have worse pregnancy outcomes, warranting increased attention to this group during antenatal and intrapartum care.