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This study compares 796 pregnancy outcomes at a maternity center (BMC) with 804 hospital (TJUH) pregnancy outcomes. The samples of pregnant women from the participating institutions were matched on sociodemographic characteristics; analysis of outcomes was performed controlling for medical-obstetric risk. Differences between the institutions were found mainly among women with low intrapartum risk. For these women, neonatal morbidity and length of infant nursery stay were lower at BMC than at TJUH. The percentage of infants with one-minute Apgar scores less than 7 or requiring resuscitation at birth was greater at BMC, but the percentage of infants with five-minute Apgar scores less than 7 as well as neonatal mortality rates did not differ between the two institutions. The number of women with intrapartum or postpartum fever was too small to permit comparison. The study results suggest that care delivered at BMC is safe with regard to the evaluative criteria used.

Pregnancy outcomes were compared between a stratified random sample of 796 women delivering a live birth at a maternity center (BMC) and a frequency matched sample of 804 women delivering a live birth at a tertiary hospital (TJUH) in 1977-1978. The relationship of use of obstetric procedures with pregnancy outcomes was investigated within and between the two samples. The neonatal morbidity rate, as measured by Hobel's neonatal risk score, was significantly higher and mean birth weights were lower at TJUH than at BMC when adjusted for institutional differences in use of obstetric procedures, medical-obstetric risk, and demographic characteristics. Conversely, the proportion of newborns with low 1-minute Apgar scores (fewer than seven) was significantly greater at BMC. The relationship of use of obstetric procedures with each outcome varied between the two institutions as well as across the three measures of pregnancy outcomes. The relationship of use of some procedures with each outcome may be explained in part by use of the procedure because of a suspected poor outcome of pregnancy, rather than an elevated risk of poor outcomes because of use of the procedure. Self-selection of some patients to BMC cannot be ruled out as a possible explanation for institutional differences.

Infanits of poor (as measured by an index) mothers were 15 percent smaller than infanits of nonpoor mothers. Infants from poor families had multiple anatomic evidences of prenatal undernutrition.