Grant: Project Grant

The problem: Pregnancy outcomes for a mother & her infant are partly shaped by the mother's socioeconomic position. We know that women who reside in low-income areas have a higher risk of morbidity, as do their newborns. What is unknown is whether downward movement to a lower income area between pregnancies is associated with greater adversity to the mother and infant -- the goal of the current proposal. What we will do: We will include all women with 2 consecutive births in Ontario from 2002-23. We will compare those who experience downward neighbourhood income mobility to those who do not. We will evaluate multiple outcomes, including the risk of morbidity and death of the mother and infant, prematurity, emergency department use, injury and self-harm, and newborn apprehension by social services. Relevance: These studies will elucidate contributors to maternal-infant health inequities, and provide insight into the mutability of risk for suboptimal pregnancy and post-pregnancy outcomes between births while offering a key period for prevention & intervention. The team: Includes senior clinician-scientists from both maternal and child health, an early career perinatal-social epidemiologist, and an experienced post-doctoral fellow. We also have the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Children's Healthcare Canada, as two of our many existing partner knowledge users.