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Is incarceration during pregnancy associated with infant birthweight?
S L Martin1, H Kim, L L Kupper
1Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-7400, USA.
Objectives:
This study examined whether incarceration during pregnancy is associated with infant birthweight.
Methods:
Multivariable analyses compared infant birthweight outcomes among three groups of women: 168 women incarcerated during pregnancy, 630 women incarcerated at a time other than during pregnancy, and 3910 women never incarcerated.
Results:
After confounders were controlled for, infant birthweights among women incarcerated during pregnancy were not significantly different from women never incarcerated; however, infant birthweights were significantly worse among women incarcerated at a time other than during pregnancy than among never-incarcerated women and women incarcerated during pregnancy.
Conclusions:
Certain aspects of the prison environment (shelter, food, etc.) may be health-promoting for high-risk pregnant women.