Assortative mating, differential fertility and abnormal pregnancy outcome.

This study examines the relationship between spousal likeness in stature and two measures of reproductive success: the number of live-born children and the frequency of abnormal pregnancies, in a large British national sample. The analyses showed that as the husband-wife height difference increases so does the probability of having an abnormal pregnancy outcome. Increasing spousal similarity for height associates with increasing numbers of live-born children even after correcting for parental age, social and regional differences.