Clinical Features of Marriage Immigrant Women and Their Babies in Perinatal Period: Comparison with Native Parturient Women and Neonates

Baek, In Hwan; Kim, Chun Soo; Lee, Sang Lak; Kim, Jong In

Abstract

PURPOSE
Nowadays, the population of foreign women who are married to Korean men is increasing. This study was undertaken to get clinical data for perinatal care of marriage immigrant women and their babies.
METHODS
Retrospective analysis of medical records was conducted on marriage immigrant women and their babies who were admitted at Dongsan Medical Center, Keimyung University over a 5-year period (Jan. 2005-Dec. 2009). Additionally, birth year-, gestational age-, number (s) of fetus-, and gender-matched native parturient women and their babies were selected by random sampling with twice the number as the control group.
RESULTS
Total 5,158 babies were born during the study period (male: 52.7%, female: 47.3%). The number of babies born from native mothers was 5,046 (97.8%). Babies born from immigrant women and other foreign mothers were 66 (1.3%) and 48 (0.9%), respectively. The most common nationality of immigrant women was Vietnam (n=43, 65.2%), and the others were China (n=13, 19.7%) and Philippines (n=6, 9.1%). Immigrant women (24.1+/-4.6 yr) were younger than native parturients (32.7+/-4.0 yr), and spouses were older in immigrant group (42.3+/-7.1 yr) than the control (35.1+/-4.5 yr) (P<0.001). The body weight of the immigrant women (59.2+/-10.5 kg) were lighter than the control (69.1+/-9.1 kg) around delivery (P<0.001). In maternal morbidity, the incidence of hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigenemia was higher in immigrant women (13.8%) than the control (3.8%) (P<0.05). Intrauterine growth retardation was more frequently developed in immigrant women, whereas hypertension and diabetes were more frequent in the control, but not significant. In babies born from immigrant women, birth weight (2,680+/-630 g) and head circumference (32.4+/-2.3 cm) were less than that (2,870+/-590 g and 33.2+/-2.1 cm) of native mothers' babies (P<0.05). Birth height was similar in two groups (47.3+/-3.3 cm vs. 47.8+/-3.3 cm). There were no differences between two groups in terms of presence of perinatal diseases in babies.
CONCLUSIONS
Marriage immigrant women have a higher incidence of HBs antigenemia and their spouses tend to be elders. Babies born from immigrant women may show significant differences in physical measures including birth weight and head circumference in comparison with native mothers' babies. Therefore follow-up evaluation of growth and development during infancy is necessary.