Investigating the association between incarceration while pregnant and maternal and infant outcomes

Funded Activity Summary

The number of women incarcerated within Australian prisons has doubled over the last ten years. Prisons contain large numbers of women from Indigenous backgrounds, women with a mental illness, women with violent partners and women with substance abuse problems. As such they constitute one of the most disadvantaged groups within Australian society and their children are unlikely to experience a healthy start to life. At any one time around 5-10% of women inside Australian prisons are pregnant. There has been no Australian research into the effect incarceration has upon pregnant women or their babies. Some believe that women who are incarcerated during their pregnancy may have better outcomes as they are outside their normal milieu with restricted access to alcohol and illicit drugs and separated from abusive partners. Others argue that the stress of incarceration and separation from family and friends could result in poorer pregnancy outcomes. This study will investigate whether being imprisoned while pregnant results in better or worse pregnancy and birth outcomes for Australian women and their babies.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2008

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $307,500.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Epidemiology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

birth | data mining | low birth weight | pregnancy | pregnancy outcome | prison population | social determinants of health | socioeconomic factors

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