Open AccessMaternal emotional distress in pregnancy and delivery of a small‐for‐gestational age infant
Author(s) -
ADAMS SAMANTHA S.,
EBERHARDGRAN MALIN,
HOFOSS DAG,
ESKILD ANNE
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01204.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pregnancy , obstetrics , gestational age , gestational diabetes , fetal distress , odds ratio , cohort , gestation , small for gestational age , offspring , cohort study , fetus , biology , genetics
Objective. To assess the association between maternal emotional distress in pregnancy and delivery of a small‐for‐gestational age offspring. Design. A cohort study in pregnancy. Setting. Fifty hospitals with a maternity ward in Norway during 1998–2008. Population. Seventy‐one thousand eight hundred and ninety‐eight women with a singleton pregnancy in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were followed from early pregnancy to delivery. Methods. Information on presence of emotional distress was obtained through self‐administered questionnaires in pregnancy weeks 17 and 30 and on birthweight, gestational length at delivery and sex by linkage to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Emotional distress was measured by short forms of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist‐25. Main Outcome Measure. Small‐for‐gestational age offspring (birthweight <2.5th percentile). Results. Being emotionally distressed at gestational weeks 17 and 30 was not significantly associated with subsequent delivery of a small‐for‐gestational age infant (adjusted odds ratio 1.16; 95% confidence interval 0.87–1.54). This estimate was adjusted for smoking in pregnancy, parity, diabetes, pre‐eclampsia, body mass index, education and maternal age. Conclusions. Emotional distress during pregnancy was not associated with subsequent delivery of a small‐for‐gestational age infant.