Stressors and pregnancy outcomes: Examining the role of life events on preterm labor

Spontaneous preterm labor (SPL) continues to be a health problem that has not been fully explained. Preterm labor has been associated with infant death and morbidity among infants and children and for that reason is problem concern that is important to study. In several reports, however, researchers have proposed that exposure to stressors may play an important role in explaining SPL among other psychosocial factors. The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of being exposed to life events early into the pregnancy on SPL.  Participants included 1145 females who received care at a public hospital in the south area of Santiago, Chile. All participants consented to participate and then completed a baseline interview and several questionnaires. Questionnaires included a life events questionnaire, the Maternal Social Support Scale (MSSS), and the CES-D scale to examine depressive symptoms, among other measures.  All females were the followed until delivery. A logistic regression analysis was conducted in which we controlled for depression and previous antecedents of preterm labor. Our findings revealed that stressors did predict SPL. We also found that having thoughts about ending their pregnancy also predicted preterm labor when controlling for other predictors. We did not find an effect of social support on pregnancy outcomes, even though we expected to find it to buffer the effects of stressors. Our findings support previous findings about the role of stressors on SPL. These results also suggest the relevance of family planning when preventing spontaneous preterm labor, if we take into account that thinking about ending pregnancy did predict SPL. A more detailed discussion of the influence of different type of stressors and the implications for public health policy are further discussed.