The association of life events to gestational age at delivery among low-income, urban, African American women.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship of life events stress to gestational age at delivery for a cohort of low income, African-American women.

STUDY DESIGN

Four hundred seventy-two African-American women from three public prenatal clinics were interviewed about life events, emotional support, and health habits. Pregnancy and birth data were collected from a clinical data base. The contribution of life events stress and other study variables to length of pregnancy was determined using linear regression models for primiparous and multiparous women.

RESULTS

Frequency of life events was not related to gestational age at delivery, directly or indirectly. An unexpected finding was that women who experienced a death of a mother or sister delivered on average 4.6 weeks earlier than other women in the study. Complications of pregnancy also explained lower gestational age for both primiparas and multiparas.

CONCLUSION

Among low-income women, the acute stressor of losing a mother or sister during pregnancy was significantly related to shorter pregnancy, although total number of events was not.