The objectives of this research are to assess the impact of prenatal courses on the birthweight of newborns, and on two intermediate variables: cigarette consumption and maternal weight gain during pregnancy. / Ninety-eight per cent (98%) of primiparous women giving birth in one of four Montreal hospitals during the nine-month study period, completed a questionnaire during their postpartum stay in hospital. Medical data on mothers and newborns were extracted from the medical records. / Women who participated in prenatal courses were of higher socioeconomic status than nonparticipants. An analysis of covariance showed that prenatal courses did not affect: the mean birthweight of newborns, the proportion of women who gained less than 20 pounds (9.1 kilos) during pregnancy, and cigarette consumption during the last five months of pregnancy. The results were consistent regardless of the > of the prenatal course which was measured by it duration, content, and trimester of enrolment in the prenatal course. / Prenatal courses did not affect the birthweight of newborns or cigarette consumption during pregnancy in women at higher risk for have low birthweight babies. Although prenatal courses did reduce by half the proportion of these higher risk women who gained less than 20 pounds, the result is of little importance since birthweight was not affected. / From a community health perspective, prenatal courses are not appropriate interventions to increase the mean birthweight of newborns. The apparent effect of prenatal courses on the birthweight of newborns is eliminated after adjusting for confounding variables. It is important to adjust for confounding variables when evaluating prenatal courses. The analysis of co-variance is an appropriate analytic technique to perform this adjustment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.71855 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Robitaille, Y. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Epidemiology and Health.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000168892, proquestno: AAINK64628, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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