Birth Outcomes of Patients Enrolled in "Familias Sanas" Research project.

Purpose: This chapter examines birth outcomes of patients enrolled in Familias Sanas (Healthy Families), an educational intervention designed to reduce health disadvantages of low-income, immigrant Latvia mothers by providing social support during and after pregnancy.

Methodology/approach: Using a randomized control-group design, the project recruited 440 pregnant Latina women, 88% of whom were first generation. Birth outcomes were collected through medical charts and analyzed using regression analysis to evaluate if there were any differences between patients enrolled in Familias Sanas compared to those patients who followed a typical prenatal course.

Findings: Control and intervention groups were found to be similar with regard to demographic characteristics. In addition, we did not observe a decrease in rate of a number of common pregnancy-related complications. Likewise, rates of operative delivery were similar between the two groups as were fetal weight at delivery and use of regional anesthesia at delivery.

Research limitations/implications: The lack of improvements in birth outcomes for this study was perhaps because this social support intervention was not significant enough to override long-standing stressors such as socioeconomic status, poor nutrition, genetics, and other environmental stressors.

Originality/value of chapter: This study was set in an inner-city, urban hospital with a large percentage of patients being of Hispanic descent. The study itself is a randomized controlled clinical trial, and data were collected directly from electronic medical records by physicians.