Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin

We examined whether and how birth outcomes and prenatal care utilization among Latina mothers changed over time across years associated with the Trump sociopolitical environment, using restricted-use birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). To assess potential variation a...

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Main Authors: Carmen Gutierrez, Nathan T. Dollar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9977052/?tool=EBI
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author Carmen Gutierrez
Nathan T. Dollar
author_facet Carmen Gutierrez
Nathan T. Dollar
author_sort Carmen Gutierrez
collection DOAJ
description We examined whether and how birth outcomes and prenatal care utilization among Latina mothers changed over time across years associated with the Trump sociopolitical environment, using restricted-use birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). To assess potential variation among subpopulations, we disaggregated the analyses by maternal nativity and country/region of origin. Our results indicate that both US- and foreign-born Latina mothers experienced increasingly higher risks of delivering low birthweight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB) infants over the years associated with Trump’s political career. Among foreign-born Latinas, adverse birth outcomes increased significantly among mothers from Mexico and Central America but not among mothers from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and South America. Levels of inadequate prenatal care utilization remained largely unchanged among groups who saw increases in LBW and PTB, suggesting that changes in prenatal care did not generally explain the observed worsening of birth outcomes among Latina mothers during the Trump era. Results from this study draw attention to the possibility that the Trump era may have represented a source of chronic stress among the Latinx population in the US and add to the growing body of literature linking racism and xenophobia in the sociopolitical environment to declines in health among Latinx people, especially among targeted groups from Mexico and Central America.
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spelling doaj.art-2522d62954c34abe84a452e7568ba74a2023-03-04T05:31:08ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01183Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of originCarmen GutierrezNathan T. DollarWe examined whether and how birth outcomes and prenatal care utilization among Latina mothers changed over time across years associated with the Trump sociopolitical environment, using restricted-use birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). To assess potential variation among subpopulations, we disaggregated the analyses by maternal nativity and country/region of origin. Our results indicate that both US- and foreign-born Latina mothers experienced increasingly higher risks of delivering low birthweight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB) infants over the years associated with Trump’s political career. Among foreign-born Latinas, adverse birth outcomes increased significantly among mothers from Mexico and Central America but not among mothers from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and South America. Levels of inadequate prenatal care utilization remained largely unchanged among groups who saw increases in LBW and PTB, suggesting that changes in prenatal care did not generally explain the observed worsening of birth outcomes among Latina mothers during the Trump era. Results from this study draw attention to the possibility that the Trump era may have represented a source of chronic stress among the Latinx population in the US and add to the growing body of literature linking racism and xenophobia in the sociopolitical environment to declines in health among Latinx people, especially among targeted groups from Mexico and Central America.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9977052/?tool=EBI
spellingShingle Carmen Gutierrez
Nathan T. Dollar
Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
PLoS ONE
title Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
title_full Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
title_fullStr Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
title_full_unstemmed Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
title_short Birth and prenatal care outcomes of Latina mothers in the Trump era: Analysis by nativity and country/region of origin
title_sort birth and prenatal care outcomes of latina mothers in the trump era analysis by nativity and country region of origin
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9977052/?tool=EBI
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