[Relationship between socioeconomic status and differences in health care utilization in pregnancy, delivery and puerperium].

Objective: Description of differences in pre-, peri- and postnatal care, according to socio-economic status (SES).

Setting: Geographically defined areas of 21 child health clinics (CHC) in several parts of the Netherlands.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

The effect of moderate maternal alcohol consumption on birth weight and gestational age in a low risk population.

We analyzed the relationship between moderate maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and both birth weight corrected for gestational age and preterm delivery in 3447 women. Information on alcohol consumption in the first and second trimester was obtained during mid pregnancy and information about third trimester drinking was obtained a few days after delivery. After adjustment for possible confounders we found that for most women alcohol consumption was unrelated to birth weight corrected for gestational age and preterm delivery.

Delaying childbearing: effect of age on fecundity and outcome of pregnancy.

Objectives: To study the age of the start of the fall (critical age) in fecundity; the probability of a pregnancy leading to a healthy baby taking into account the age of the woman; and, combining these results, to determine the age dependent probability of getting a healthy baby.

Design: Cohort study of all women who had entered a donor insemination programme.

Setting: Two fertility clinics serving a large part of The Netherlands.

The study of risk habits in reproductive and perinatal epidemiologic research: the use of a donor inseminated population of women.

In this study we assess whether a population of donor inseminated women (ADI) provides an efficient alternative to an open population of women of reproductive age to study the effects of risk habits (cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption) on reproductive and perinatal health. An ADI population can be prospectively monitored before and after pregnancy; women enter the programme because of their husband's infertility. In the pilot clinic every couple asking for first insemination was requested to fill in a self-administered questionnaire on risk habits and the use of medicine.