Maternal asthma and pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the relationship between asthma during pregnancy and selected infant and maternal outcomes.

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on mother-infant dyads identified from a linked infant and maternal hospital discharge database in the Canadian province of Quebec between fiscal years 1991-1992 and 1995-1996. Mothers with asthma (n = 2193) were compared with a randomly selected control sample (n = 8772) from the remaining population of mothers.

RESULTS: After important confounding variables were accounted for, maternal asthma was significantly associated with several adverse infant outcomes, including preterm birth and birth of infants who are very small for gestational age, and adverse maternal outcomes, such as idiopathic preterm labor, early idiopathic preterm labor, preeclampsia, transient hypertension of pregnancy, pregnancy-associated hypertension, chorioamnionitis, and cesarean delivery.

CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that pregnant women with asthma are at substantially increased risk for several adverse infant and maternal outcomes and suggest the need for extra attention to mothers with asthma and their infants.