Document Type

Newsletter

Publication Date

4-2010

Issue

Number 1, 2010

Description

The birth of a baby can be a momentous occasion, but when an infant is born prematurely and/or with low birth weight, it can place a considerable amount of financial and emotional strain on families. In addition, poor birth outcomes such as low birth weight and preterm births put financial pressure on state and federal budgets. More specifically, Cassandra O’Neill (2004) reports that Medicaid covers “40 percent of the four million annual births” nationwide. O’Neill adds that Medicaid “pays for 50 percent of hospital stays for premature and low birth weight infants.”
There are a number of maternal characteristics that affect mothers’ health status and birth outcomes. In this newsletter, we focus on prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy, and birth outcomes. The medical community has identified both prenatal care and smoking during pregnancy as factors that affect birth outcomes and infant health (Mathews 2001; O’Neill 2004).

Pages

8

Format

application/pdf

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Language

en

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