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Extremely low birth weight associated with few negative long-term effects
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Although mothers reported that having a child with extremely low birth weight took a toll on their jobs and educational or training opportunities, they also said caring for the child fostered closer relationships among family members, relatives and friends, according to new study data.
Researchers from the University of Toronto and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, performed a longitudinal cohort study involving mothers of extremely low birth weight survivors born between 1977 and 1982. They collected data from parents via comprehensive questionnaires that addressed parents’ age, marital status, family composition and mother’s education, employment status and occupation between January 2002 and April 2004. Eighty-one percent of mothers in the extremely low birth weight group and 89% of mothers in the normal birth weight group participated in the study.
Results indicated no significant differences between the groups in the areas of marital disharmony, family dysfunction and social support scores. Maternal mood, anxiety and depression scores were also similar.
The researchers noted, however, that mothers of extremely low birth weight young adults with neurosensory impairment reported considerably less family dysfunction (P=.006). A number of these mothers also said they felt better about themselves for having managed their child’s health than those whose extremely low birth weight young adults did not have neurosensory impairment (P=.001).
When compared with the normal birth weight group, mothers of extremely low birth weight young adults said that the child’s health played a role in creating closer family ties, while relatives and friends were also more helpful and understanding (P≤.0001).
Mothers of extremely low birth weight young adults, however, experienced more negative effects on their work and their spouses’ work than mothers in the normal birth weight group.
Data also showed that maternal physical and emotional health among mothers in the extremely low birth weight group were comparable to mothers of normal birth weight young adults.
“It seems that by adulthood, there is a minimally negative, long-term impact of having an extremely low birth weight child in the family,” the researchers wrote.
Saigal S. Pediatrics. 2010 Jun 7. [Epub ahead of print].