Birth outcome in incarcerated, high-risk pregnant women.
OBJECTIVE
To compare birth outcomes in incarcerated women with a recent history of drug use to those of nonincarcerated women in a methadone maintenance program.


METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed pregnancy outcome in 149 women who delivered at full term between 1993 and 1996. Thirty-one patients incarcerated during pregnancy (group 1) were compared with 47 patients enrolled in our methadone maintenance program (group 2) and with a control group of 71 randomly chosen patients (group 3). Drug use, age, parity, number of visits, infant birth weight, low birth weight and Apgar scores were compared.


RESULTS
The methadone maintenance group had significantly fewer clinic visits. All the patients in groups 1 and 2 were cigarette smokers, whereas 12.5% of the control group smoked. Over 78% of incarcerated women admitted using drugs immediately prior to imprisonment as compared to 4.11% in group 3 and 100% in group 2 (P < .001). The three groups differed significantly with respect to infant birth weight (P < .001).


CONCLUSIONS
Cessation of drug use followed by adoption of a health-promoting lifestyle and adequate prenatal care of incarcerated women leads to an improvement in birth outcome. Furthermore, provision of prenatal care on site is a suitable alternative for the care of incarcerated pregnant women and eliminates the need to bring patients in chains to outside clinics.
Kyei-Aboagye
K
K
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston University School of Medicine, Massachusetts 02118, USA.
Vragovic
O
O
Chong
D
D
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009294:Narcotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011329:Prisoners; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D016387:Women's Health
D009294:Narcotics; D008691:Methadone