Overweight among low-income Texas preschoolers aged 2 to 4 years.

Objective: Determine child/maternal factors associated with overweight among 2- to 4-year-olds enrolled in the Texas Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Design: Matched child and maternal data collected by self-report of the mother during WIC certification. These data were extracted from existing statewide WIC databases and merged.

Prior contraceptive use among women who gave birth in the US-Mexico border region, 2005: the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health.

Introduction: Dramatic population growth in the US-Mexico border region suggests more effective family planning services are needed, yet binational data are scarce. The Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health collected binational, standardized data from 947 postpartum women in Cameron County (Texas) and Matamoros (Tamaulipas, Mexico) hospitals from August through November 2005.

Methods: We analyzed these data to estimate the proportion of women with unintended pregnancy and the proportion of these women who reported contraceptive use, and to identify associated factors.

Prenatal HIV testing in the US-Mexico border region, 2005: the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health.

Introduction: Routine prenatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening provides a critical opportunity to diagnose HIV infection, begin chronic care, and prevent mother-to-child transmission. However, little is known about the prevalence of prenatal HIV testing in the US-Mexico border region. We explored the correlation between prenatal HIV testing and sociodemographic, health behavior, and health exposure characteristics.

Characteristics of young women who gave birth in the US-Mexico border region, 2005: the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health.

Introduction: Childbearing during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with adverse effects on health and quality of life. Lowering birth rates among young women is a binational priority in the US-Mexico border region, yet baseline information about birth rates and pregnancy risk is lacking. Increased understanding of the characteristics of young women who give birth in the region will help target high-risk groups for sexual and reproductive health services.

Attempted breastfeeding before hospital discharge on both sides of the US-Mexico border, 2005: the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health.

Introduction: The US-Mexico border region has a growing population and limited health care infrastructure. Preventive health behaviors such as breastfeeding ease the burden on this region's health care system by reducing morbidity and health care costs. We examined correlates of attempted breastfeeding before hospital discharge on each side of the US-Mexico border and within the border region.

Cervical cancer screening among women who gave birth in the US-Mexico border region, 2005: the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project for Women's Health.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to examine correlates of ever having had a Papanicolaou (Pap) test among women who recently delivered a live infant and who resided near the US-Mexico border.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included women who delivered a live infant in Matamoros, Mexico (n = 488) and Cameron County, Texas (n = 453). Women were interviewed in the hospital before discharge between August 21 and November 9, 2005.

Paradox found (again): infant mortality among the Mexican-origin population in the United States.

Recent research suggests that the favorable mortality outcomes for the Mexican immigrant population in the United States may largely be attributable to selective out-migration among Mexican immigrants, resulting in artificially low recorded death rates for the Mexican-origin population. In this paper we calculate detailed age-specific infant mortality rates by maternal race/ethnicity and nativity for two important reasons: (1) it is extremely unlikely that women of Mexican origin would migrate to Mexico with newborn babies, especially if the infants were only afew hours or afew days old; and (2) more than 50% of all infant deaths in the United States occur during the first week of life, when the chances of out-migration are very small. We use concatenated data from the U.

Primary cesarean deliveries prior to labor in the United States, 1979-2004.

Objectives: To provide for the United States yearly estimates of first-time (primary) cesareans prior to labor and to examine factors associated with 1979-2004 trends.

Methods: We estimated the annual percent of total, primary, and repeat cesareans with and without labor for 15- to 44-year-old women with live births in the 1979-2004 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS; N=706,062). For women without prior cesareans (N=628,064), we used logistic regression to examine whether trends in primary cesarean before labor are explained by changes over time in: (1) the frequency of pregnancy complications, women's age, principal source of payment for delivery, hospital ownership, size, and region; and (2) the decision to deliver by cesarean when complications are present.

Processes linked to contact changes in adoptive kinship networks.

The purpose of this study was to reveal underlying processes in adoptive kinship networks that experienced increases or decreases in levels of openness during the child's adolescent years. Intensive case study analyses were conducted for 8 adoptive kinship networks (each including an adoptive mother, adoptive father, adopted adolescent, and birth mother), half of whom had experienced an increase in openness from indirect (mediated) to direct (fully disclosed) contact and half of whom had ceased indirect contact between Waves 1 and 2 of a longitudinal study. Adoptive mothers tended to be more involved in contact with the birth mother than were adoptive fathers or adopted adolescents.

Trends in maternal request cesarean delivery from 1991 to 2004.

Objective: To review definitions and terminology for and to estimate percentages of maternal request cesarean deliveries in the United States between 1991 and 2004.

Methods: National Hospital Discharge Survey data 1991-2004 (N=458,767) were used to identify maternal request cesarean deliveries. After excluding women with a history of cesarean delivery, women who labored, and women with indicated risks against labor, 2,394 potential maternal request cesarean deliveries remained.