THE EFFECT OF INCARCERATION DURING PREGNANCY ON BIRTH OUTCOMES

Objective. This study examined the effect of incarceration during preg nancy on infant birth weight. Methods. North Carolina prison records w ere matched to North Carolina birth certificates and health services r ecords to identify 94 women who were incarcerated during one pregnancy but not incarcerated during another pregnancy. Paired analyses examin ed differences between the pregnancies in terms of the women's charact eristics and use of health services. A generalized estimating equation s analysis modeled infant birth weight as a function of the number of days that a woman was incarcerated during pregnancy, accounting for th e correlation between the birth weights of two infants born to the sam e mother and several potentially confounding variables, Results. Since the women were significantly more likely to have been incarcerated du ring the second of-the pair of pregnancies, as a group they were signi ficantly older and had more children at the time of the incarcerated p regnancy than at the time of the home pregnancy. After controlling for important covariates, a higher number of pregnancy days spent incarce rated was found to be associated with higher infant birth weight. Conc lusion. These findings suggest that aspects of the prison environment such as shelter and regular meals may enhance pregnancy outcomes among very high risk women. Health professionals should join others in effo rts to assure that health-promoting resources such as adequate shelter ; nutritional support, and substance abuse treatment programs are avai lable to ail pregnant women.