Examining the role of Stress events and Depressive Symptoms on Birth Outcomes in a Sample of Chilean Low-Income Pregnant females

Preterm delivery is considered to be the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The determinants of this condition are several, however, researchers have discussed the role that psychosocial factors may have. Among these, , maternal tress and depression have been described as factors that influence birth outcomes, in particular premature birth, among females (e.g. Ritter et al., 2000; Rich-Edwards & Grizzard, 2005).

We conducted a prospective study with a sample of 734 Chilean non-smokers females participated. We examined if numbers of stressors (PRAMS) to which these females were exposed and levels of depressive symptomatology (CES-D) measured during the first visit (week 12th) predicted premature birth (births before 35 weeks), controlling for other predictors of premature birth. Of the 734 females who participated, only 34 gave birth before 37 weeks.

Our findings suggest that stress events but not depressive symptoms predicts premature birth , even when we control for education, income, social support and antecedents of premature birth. Interestingly, we found that stress had an effect only after certain number of events these women face. Using a threshold of 4, as has been described previously in the literature, we found that stress events started to have an effect on pregnancy outcomes.

Economic difficulties, problemas with their partners and domestic violence were the stressors that these females most commonly faced. These findins are consistent with waht other researchers have described regarding the role of life events on preterm brith (Dole et al., 2003). We present other findings, and discuss explanations and potential implications of these results for public health policies.