Partner support in a cohort of African American families and its influence on pregnancy outcomes and prenatal health behaviors

Abstract

BackgroundWe examined how two indicators of partner involvement, relationship type and paternal support, influenced the risk of pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, low birth weight) and health behaviors (prenatal care, drug use, and smoking) among African American women.MethodsInterview and medical record data were obtained from a study of 713 adult African American women delivering singletons between March 2001 and July 2004. Women were enrolled prenatally if they received care at one of three Johns Hopkins Medical Institution (JHMI) prenatal clinics or post-partum if they delivered at JHMI with late, no or intermittent prenatal care. Relationship type was classified as married, unmarried/cohabitating, or unmarried/non-cohabitating. Partner support was assessed using an 8-item scale and was dichotomized at the median. Differences in partner support by pregnancy outcome and health behaviors were assessed using linear regression. To assess measures of partner support as predictors of adverse pregnancy outcomes and health behaviors, Poisson regression was used to generate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsThere were no statistically significant differences in pregnancy outcomes or health behaviors by relationship type or when partner support was examined as a continuous or categorical variable. Modeled as a dichotomous variable, partner support was not associated with the risk of preterm birth (PR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.56, 1.56), low birth weight (PR = 0.77, 96% CI = 0.48, 1.26), or health behaviors.ConclusionsPaternal involvement was not associated with pregnancy outcomes or maternal health behaviors. Attention to measurement issues and other factors relevant for African American women are discussed.

The Influence of Antenatal Partner Support on Pregnancy Outcomes

“…11 Conversely, a recent study among African American women found no association between prenatal partner support and preterm birth, low birth weight, or maternal health behaviors. 29 Our data support the conclusion that women with low antenatal partner support have worse mental health 17,18 and health behaviors 15 than their peers who report high partner support. This is consistent with some, 29 but not all, of the available research.…”

“…29 Our data support the conclusion that women with low antenatal partner support have worse mental health 17,18 and health behaviors 15 than their peers who report high partner support. This is consistent with some, 29 but not all, of the available research. These differences may reflect the disparate use of indicators and definitions of partner and father involvement used across studies.…”

Pregnancy Intention and Post-partum Depressive Affect in Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System

“…Having a partner who did not care was protective against severe PPDs in the sample overall. Research has shown that partner support during the course of a woman's pregnancy is essential to the mother's health and well-being [13,41,44,[62][63][64]. While we did examine discordance between the mother and her partner for pregnancy wantedness, the questions posed to mothers about her own pregnancy wantedness and her partners' were not the same; therefore, actual discordance was difficult to define and with similar questions, may have revealed a greater impact.…”

“…One potential mechanism in the relation between marital status or lack of a partner and risk of PPD is the effect of partner support on the mother's perceived social support, which may be linked to PPD [35,36]. While paternal support can be defined through multiple measures: financial support, assistance with child-rearing, the presence of the father on the baby's birth certificate [41][42][43][44][45][46][47], father's own pregnancy wantedness or intention is another aspect of social support related to maternal mental health that has received much less attention in the literature. While few studies have examined the increase in risk of PPD as a result of partner pregnancy intention [16], research on partners' pregnancy intentions and relationship quality has demonstrated the important role that relationship quality and partner intentions play in prenatal care [48], smoking during pregnancy [49], and subsequent high-risk pregnancies [50].…”

Preterm Birth and Social Support during Pregnancy: a Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…There were four retrospective studies that recruited using birth registries, national surveys, and a hospital setting . Four studies included women at higher risk of PTB, including African American women, or women with low income and/or no health insurance . The percentage of women experiencing PTB in the studies ranged from 5.4% to 22.5%…”