Cumulative trauma, posttraumatic stress, and obstetric and perinatal outcomes

Traumatic stress is associated with increased risk for physical health conditions, emotional disorders, and reproductive challenges. Significant rates of posttraumatic stress disorder are reported during pregnancy and after childbirth (Yildiz et al., 2017). However, a dearth of research has explored how traumatic stress impacts obstetric and perinatal outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine whether cumulative trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were positively associated with adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes (i.e., pregnancy complications, nonviable pregnancies, preterm birth, and low birth weight). Abortion was also explored in relation to trauma exposure.

Two hundred and twenty-six trauma-exposed women (M_age = 40.54, SD = 13.03) who had been pregnant at least once were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk; 63.3%) or midwestern university (36.7%) to participate in the study.

Higher levels of PTSS were related to a greater number of nonviable pregnancies and abortions (βs = .18-.20) as well as delivering a low birth weight baby (OR = 1.03). Yet, these same associations were not found with cumulative trauma exposure. Conversely, greater cumulative trauma was linked with delivering a baby prematurely (OR = 1.16). Pregnancy complications were unrelated to both PTSS and cumulative trauma.

Cumulative trauma exposure and PTSS may have adverse effects on obstetric and perinatal outcomes and pregnant women with PTSS may be especially vulnerable. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and examine the temporal relationship between duration of PTSS and obstetric and perinatal outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).