title: The effect of marital status on pregnancy outcome in Israel: a retrospective case-control study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have observed an association between unmarried status of the mother and adverse perinatal outcome such as increased rate of preterm deliveries, low birthweight and small-for-gestational-age infants. In Israel, attendance of prenatal care is imposed by the state and is not related to socioeconomic status; therefore, unmarried women are expected to have a similar prenatal care as married women. The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that unmarried and married pregnant women have a similar perinatal outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a retrospective case-control study, analysis of the records of women who gave birth at the delivery ward of Edith Wolfson Medical Center (a tertiary health care center) over a one-year period (2005) with respect to marital status was performed. The cases group included 304 unmarried women who were matched with 1:1 ratio for maternal age, parity, and number of fetuses in the current pregnancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Unmarried women (n = 304) were more likely to smoke during pregnancy (35.2% vs 15.2%, P < 0.001), had a longer second stage (44.4 ± 9.8 min vs 54.4 ± 4.4 min, P < 0.05) and a shorter first stage (484.0 ± 34.8 min vs 421.0 ± 25.3 min P < 0.05) of labor. The unmarried women had similar length of gestation, preterm delivery rate, mode of delivery, low birthweight rates, low Apgar scores or meconium passage during labor as married women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Israel, unmarried and married pregnant women may have almost similar pregnancy outcomes on length of gestation, mode of delivery and Apgar score.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, and the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. drslurie@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lurie
authors.forename: Anath
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zalmanovitch
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Golan
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sadan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D017533:Marital Status; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012189:Retrospective Studies