Racial/Ethnic Differences in Relationships Between Pregnancy Intentions and Maternal Outcomes

• Published in: Maternal and child health journal Vol. 28; no. 9; pp. 1559 - 1569
• Main Author: Mark, Nicholas D. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-09-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Black or African American - psychology; Ethnicity; Female; Gynecology; Hispanic or Latino - psychology; Humans; Intention; Maternal and Child Health; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Minority & ethnic groups; Mothers - psychology; Pediatrics; Population Economics; Pregnancy; Pregnancy - psychology; Pregnancy Outcome - ethnology; Pregnancy, Unplanned - ethnology; Pregnancy, Unplanned - psychology; Pregnancy, Unwanted - ethnology; Pregnancy, Unwanted - psychology; Public Health; Race; Socioeconomic Factors; Sociology; United States - epidemiology; White - psychology; Young Adult; United States; Maternal well-being; Race/ethnicity; Pregnancy intentions
• ISSN: 1092-7875; 1573-6628; 1573-6628
• DOI: 10.1007/s10995-024-03947-x

Unplanned or unwanted pregnancies and births are linked to adverse maternal outcomes, but the extent to which such relationships hold for all racial/ethnic groups remains unknown. In this paper, I use large-scale data to estimate unadjusted and inverse propensity weighted associations between a five-level measure of pregnancy intention and six indicators of maternal well-being among separate samples of white, Black, and Hispanic mothers. I find substantial racial/ethnic variation. White and Hispanic mothers who reported that their pregnancies were mistimed, unwanted, or that they were unsure how they felt were significantly more likely to experience adverse outcomes than same-race/ethnicity mothers who reported that their pregnancy was intended, but the pattern was much more tenuous for Black mothers. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, relationships between pregnancy intentions and adverse outcomes remain substantial only for white and Hispanic mothers.
Significance
What is already known on this subject?
Recent research has found links between unplanned or unwanted pregnancies and adverse maternal outcomes, but the extent to which the relationship varies by race/ethnicity is unknown.
What this study adds?
This study estimates unadjusted and inverse propensity weighted associations between a 5-level measure of pregnancy intention and six indicators of maternal well-being among separate samples of white, Black, and Hispanic mothers. Both unadjusted and inverse propensity weighted relationships are considerably stronger among Hispanic and white mothers than among Black mothers. Possible causes of these differences are discussed.