The number of premature births among Latina women across the United States increased between November 2016 and July 2017. A new study suggests a link between this increase and the U.S. 2016 election that voted President Donald Trump into office.
Rise In Preterm Births After 2016 US Presidential Election
In the new study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open on July 19, Alison Gemmill, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues analyzed data of more than 33 million live births in the United States.
They used a database from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks live births in the country.
They found that nine months following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the number of preterm births among Latina women was 2,337 higher than expected given trends in preterm births in the years before the election.
Gemmill and colleagues first tracked the preterm births that occurred among Latina women over the previous administration between January 2009 and October 2016. The researchers then used those data to estimate the expected preterm births in the nine months following Trump's election.
After comparing the actual number to the expected number of preterm births, the researchers found that the number of preterm births among male infants was 1,342 higher than the expected 36,828, and the number of preterm births among female infants was 995 higher than the expected 30,687.
This excess in actual number of premature births is between 3.2 percent and 3.6 percent higher than the projections from pre-election data.
Trump's Immigrant Policies And Maternal Stress
The research also revealed that the excess preterm births peaked between February and July 2017, which suggests that infants conceived or in the second trimester of gestation at the time of the election were particularly vulnerable to maternal stress.
Birth outcomes are used in medical research as an indicator of acute stress among women. Preterm birth in particular is associated with maternal stress.
Earlier studies suggest that anti-immigrant actions and policies can stress immigrant women and make them less likely to see prenatal care. Latinas who are not directly threatened by tighter policies involving undocumented immigrants may still have family members or friends who could be threatened by these policies.
"The 2016 election, following campaign promises of mass deportation and the rollback of policies such as DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, may have adversely affected the health of Latinas and their newborns," Gemmill said.
