Maternal sociomedical characteristics and birth weights of firstborns

Pregnancy outcome and sociomedical characteristics were examined in a sample of 1844 black and white primiparous females who received prenatal care. White females were more frequently married and more likely to live with their husbands than with their parents. Black females were better educated and more interested in obtaining further education. White women smoked significantly more cigarettes. There were no differences in contraceptive use in black and white females. Number of prenatal visits was least frequent among adolescent black females. With the exception of a higher incidence of vaginal infection among black females, there were no significant differences in general health status. There were no differences in birth weights between the firstborns of black and white adolescents, but adult white females had significantly heavier firstborns than blacks. Nonetheless, no differences were found in prevalence of low birth weight-for-gestational neonates between black and white females. Infrequent prenatal visits, maternal diabetes and smoking were the only significant multivariate factors associated with the occurrence of a low birth weight-for-gestational age neonate among the total sample.