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Division of Reproductive Health: Activities—Maternal Health, Infant
Health, and Preterm Delivery |
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Back to Activities
In the United States each year, approximately six million women become
pregnant. While most women have a normal term pregnancy and deliver a normal
infant, a safe and healthy pregnancy is not the experience of all women.
Some groups have increased risks for complications related to pregnancy.
Major and persistent racial and ethnic disparities exist in
pregnancy-related death, in preterm birth, and in fetal and infant
mortality. In spite of considerable efforts to understand and prevent these
adverse pregnancy outcomes, factors that make some women more susceptible
than others have not been clearly defined.
To address the magnitude and impact of complications related to
pregnancy for women, fetuses, and infants, CDC's Division of Reproductive
Health conducts research and
surveillance and, in partnership with other federal and non-federal groups,
widely disseminates key findings. CDC collaborates with partners in
state health departments, universities, professional societies, health
maintenance organizations on projects designed to advance understanding of
risk factors, causes, and prevention strategies for preterm delivery;
sudden
unexplained infant death; maternal mortality; acute and chronic conditions
during pregnancy.
Program Highlights
- Revising 1996 Guidelines for Death Scene Investigation of
Sudden, Unexplained Infant Death and will provide training and education
on use of the new form. These efforts are to improve accuracy of reporting
cause of death on death certificates.
- Conducting a study of adverse pregnancy outcomes, specifically
placental abruption, preterm delivery, and hypertensive disorders of
pregnancy, among Alaska Native women, 60% of whom chew tobacco and
perceive it to be safe during pregnancy. The effects on pregnancy outcome
are unknown.
- Collaborating with outside investigators to better
understand susceptibility to preterm birth by identifying social,
behavioral, community, genetic, and biologic determinants; exploring
genetic variation within and between groups and gene-environment
interactions; and developing risk prediction.
- Preparing a journal supplement for publication in 2005, which
will feature research and maternal health promotion activities, such as
100 Intentional Acts of Kindness towards Pregnant Women from the Healthy
African American Families project in Los Angeles.
- Collaborated with Indian Health Service to develop maternal
and child health epidemiologic capacity at Tribal Epidemiology Centers.
Partners will conduct a study of delivery complications and assess use of
service statistics for surveillance of pregnancy complications.
- Improve surveillance of pregnancy complications; collaborate
on an ongoing study to develop innovative methods to identify all
morbidities among pregnant women enrolled in a large managed care
organization.
- Update clinicians and public health practitioners on causes and
disparities in maternal deaths.
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Program Impact
- Standardizing death scene investigations when sudden unexplained
infant death occurs will improve accuracy of information and permit
studies to identify modifiable risk factors for prevention.
- Population-based data on a variety of exposures and pregnancy outcomes
among Alaska Native women will allow local agencies to generate public
health messages advising women of the hazards associated with smokeless
tobacco use during pregnancy.
- Methods developed in our study of maternal morbidity may be applied to
other populations in an attempt to better understand causes. Even small
advances in the prevention of maternal morbidity can improve the quality
of life for hundreds of thousands of women.
- The persistent disparity in pregnancy-related death between black and
white women calls for an expansion of intensive review of maternal deaths
at the state level to include severe complications of pregnancy.
Maternal and Infant Health Back to Activities Date last reviewed:
05/19/2006
Content source: Division
of Reproductive Health,
National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion |
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