Research

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: First Nations; inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.573.2813; http://www.cmaj.ca/content/171/6/585.full.pdf

It is generally recognized that Aboriginal women ex-perience poorer birth outcomes than other NorthAmerican women, including higher rates of stillbirth,1 low-birth-weight infants1-3 and prematurity.2,3 Although sig-nificant efforts have been made to reduce Aboriginal infant mortality rates, these rates remain higher than for other infants in both Canada4 and the United States.5 Little is known about the reasons for differences in birth outcomes, although social, economic, medical and prenatal care fac-tors have been suggested. Recent publications, based on retrospective analyses of large databases, have confirmed disparities in birth outcomes between Aboriginal and all other groups,3,6,7 but there is a paucity of prospective data. In addition, although the term “Aboriginal ” refers to a het-erogeneous population comprising First Nations people, Métis and Inuit, there are few comparisons between spe-cific Aboriginal groups or of Aboriginal groups with the general population. We report here the results of a prospective study in a general obstetric population, comparing birth outcomes and known pregnancy risk factors of Aboriginal women with those of non-Aboriginal Canadian women. In addition to well-recognized socioeconomic and reproductive risk factors, we investigated the prevalence of maternal cervico-vaginal infections, which have been increasingly linked to prematurity.8,9