Pregnancy Intentions, Race and Ethnicity, and Infant Outcomes: A Research Note

Highlights

“Unintended” pregnancies are commonly thought to be associated with worse infant health outcomes than “intended” pregnancies. These associations are strongest among White mothers and are weak or not significant among Black and Hispanic mothers. Adjusting for a basic set of sociodemographic variables dramatically changes the relationship between pregnancy intention and outcomes for Whites but not for other racial and ethnic groups. The relationships between maternal characteristics, pregnancy intentions, and outcomes are very heterogeneous for different racial and ethnic groups. Public health messaging should avoid generic statements linking pregnancy intentions to adverse outcomes; tackling specific barriers to autonomy would likely be more helpful for improving outcomes than a generic focus on unintended pregnancies that risks blaming and shaming mothers.