Reproducibility and validity of maternal recall of pregnancy-related events

We assessed the reproducibility and validity of a questionnaire that asks m others to recall pregnancy-related events from thirty or more years ago. Am ong 146 women who completed the questionnaire twice, responses were highly reproducible for pre-pregnancy height and weight (r = 0.95), pregnancy comp lications (r = 0.74), substance use (r = 0.80), preterm delivery (r = 0.82) , birthweight (r = 0.94), and breastfeeding (r = 0.89). Among 154 women who se questionnaire responses were compared to data collected during their pre gnancies, recall was highly accurate for height (r = 0.90), pre-pregnancy w eight (r = 0.86), birthweight (r = 0.91), and smoking (sensitivity = 0.86, specificity = 0.94). These findings suggest that long-term maternal recall is both reproducible and accurate for many factors related to pregnancy and delivery.