Time in the United States, social support and health behaviors during pregnancy among women of Mexican descent

Abstract

Among women of Mexican descent, increased acculturation in the United States has been associated with poorer health behaviors during pregnancy. This study examined a population of low-income women of Mexican descent in an agricultural community to determine whether social support patterns were associated with age at arrival in the U.S.; whether social support was associated with pregnancy behaviors; and whether increased social support could prevent some of the negative pregnancy behaviors that accompany acculturation. Participants were 568 pregnant women enrolled in prenatal care in the Salinas Valley, California. Participants were predominantly Spanish-speaking, born in Mexico, and from farmworker families. Information on social networks, social support, age at arrival in the United States, and pregnancy health behaviors was gathered during interviews conducted during pregnancy and immediately after delivery. Poorer health behaviors were observed among women who had come to the U.S. at a younger age. Social support during pregnancy was lowest among women who had come to the U.S. at an older age. High parity, low education, and low income were also associated with low social support. Higher social support was associated with better quality of diet, increased likelihood of using prenatal vitamins, and decreased likelihood of smoking during pregnancy. High social support also appeared to prevent the negative impact of life in the U.S. on diet quality. Women with intermediate or low levels of social support who had spent their childhoods in the U.S. had significantly poorer diet quality than women who had spent their childhoods in Mexico. However, among women with high social support, there was no difference in diet quality according to country of childhood. Thus, in the case of diet quality, increased social support appears to prevent some of the negative pregnancy behaviors that accompany time in the U.S. among women of Mexican descent.

Acculturation, Stress and Birth Outcomes in Mexican and Mexican American Women

“…Stepwise regression indicated that 19.3% of the variability in length of gestation could be accounted for by the sense of belonging (Table 5). This is dissimilar to Harley and Eskenazi (2006) who examined the effect of social support and health behaviors during pregnancy among 568 women of Mexican descent and found that "social support was lowest among recent Mexican immigrants and highest among women who had lived their entire lives in the United States" (p. 3055). This current finding may be due to the social context in which the subjects live.…”

“…This early finding was further validated by Campos, Dunkel Shetter, Adbou, Hobel, Glynn and Sandman (2008). Among Latinas, social support during pregnancy is often provided by the maternal grandmother with additional support from the father of the baby and a network of immediate family and friends (Harley & Eskenazi, 2006;Thornton et al, 2006). Landale, Oropesa, Ilanes and Gorman (1999) found that Puerto Rican women who lived with the baby's father throughout the pregnancy reported lower levels of stress than women who did not.…”

Giving Birth in a Foreign Land: Exploring the Maternal Healthcare Experiences of Zimbabwean Migrant Women Living in Johannesburg, South Africa

“…As found in other studies, churches played a crucial role in providing emotional, instrumental and informational support to the participants in preparation for childbirth (Harley and Eskenazi 2006). The participants-particularly Ayanda, Maria, Kudzai and Fatima-acknowledged going to church and receiving prayers, advice and exercises during pregnancy.…”

Maternal Acculturation and the Prenatal Care Experience

“…This consistency between the four measures of acculturation is reassuring, both from the internal consistency standpoint (all trends were in the same direction) and for external comparison purposes (as compared with other studies that may have only analyzed one or two acculturation measures). 31,45,46 Among the 1024 women who delivered term and normal birth weight infants in our study, we found the largest variation in adjusted mean scores for the patient-centered decision making domain (scores ranged from 3.62 among more acculturated women to 4.10 among less acculturated women) and also varied substantially by type of health insurance (scores ranged from 3.07 among privately insured women to 4.36 among uninsured women). This variation in scores may reflect underlying differences in expectation or preferences, with higher expectations for patient-centered decision making among US-born and privately insured women than among less acculturated and publicly insured women.…”