PREGNANCY IN UK AND ETHNIC MINORITIES

Pregnancy in UK and Ethnic Minorities

Pregnancy in UK and Ethnic Minorities

Introduction

Possible reasons for the excess risk of perinatal mortality experienced by Asian women living in Britain who work during pregnancy were investigated. This entailed a detailed examination of the work undertaken locally by a group of pregnant Asian women and comparison with the work undertaken by an occupationally matched group of pregnant non-Asian women.

Investigators

A total of 306 pregnant women were interviewed.

The results suggest that the two ethnic groups experienced similar working conditions, and most of the women continued working until the 29th week of pregnancy. The Asian women worked significantly longer hours on average than the non- Asian group, and were more likely to report financial dependence by the family upon their earnings. As the participation ofwomen in the labour force has continued to increase, the nature of the relation between working during pregnancy and outcome of pregnancy has become the focus of various research studies. Findings have often shown no adverse association, whereas others have found associations between working during pregnancy and outcomes such as preterm delivery, birthweight,' fetal death, and spontaneous abortion. Associations have also been shown between some specific occupations (such as leatherwork) and adverse outcome of pregnancy.

Background

Ethnicity and its relation to the outcome of pregnancy have also been seen as an area worthy of investigation. For example, the study of Lumb, Congdon, and Lealman showed that Asian women in Bradford suffered a higher risk of perinatal mortality than non-Asian women. Studies carried out in other cities have also shown associations between ethnicity and higher rates of perinatal mortality, stillbirths, and lower birthweights for children born to women described as "Asian" or "of Indian origin" compared with non-Asians. When examining the findings of such studies one must, however, be aware that definitions of terms such as "Asian" and "Indian" differ, along with the fact that there are considerable variations in the characteristics of ethnic minorities between cities in Britain. For example, the largest group within the "Asian" population in Leicester are Gujerati Hindus, whereas in Southall the majority group are Punjabi Sikhs. We believe that comparisons of studies concerning different ethnic populations in different cities must be made with caution, owing to this variation in local populations and how they are defined. We have been undertaking a stratified case-control study of perinatal death since 2003.' 18 Cases are defined as perinatal deaths experienced by women whose place of residence is Leicestershire, regardless of the place of delivery.

Aims:

To get a detailed examination of the work undertaken locally by a group of pregnant Asian women and comparison with the work undertaken by an occupationally matched group of pregnant non-Asian women.

Study Design

Case note reviews, interviews with the mother, and the comments of a review group attempting to identify avoidable factors in relation to the perinatal death are all used as sources of data.

Subjects/Patients

Analysis of the data from this perinatal mortality survey suggests that Asian women have a significant excess ...