Pregnancy outcomes among Spanish-surname women in California.
We compared pregnancy outcomes among United States-born and Mexican-born women having Spanish surnames with US-born Whites and Blacks using California's 1981 matched birth-death cohort file. Maternal risk characteristics between US-born Black women and US-born women with Spanish surnames were similar. In contrast, Latino women, regardless of national origin, delivered small proportions of low weight infants as compared to Blacks. Birthweight-specific mortality rates during the fetal and neonatal periods for the offspring of Mexican-born Spanish surname women were generally higher than those for other ethnic groups. Our findings are consistent with the underreporting of postneonatal deaths among Mexican-born Latinos, yet suggest that their relatively low reported infant mortality rates compared to Blacks can be explained by a more favorable birthweight distribution.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001719:Birth Certificates; D001724:Birth Weight; D044383:Black People; D002140:California; D003644:Death Certificates; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D006292:Health Priorities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008393:Marriage; D008423:Maternal Age; D008800:Mexico; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D014481:United States; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American