Objective: Our purpose was to assess to what extent the absence of health insurance (Social Security) contributes to poor pregnancy outcome.
Study design: A prospective, population-based study compared the perinatal outcome of women without Social Security (n=243) to a contemporaneous control group (n=243) and to a group of women (n=32) with Social Security but presenting another risk factor for precarity (a judicial child-mother separation sentence).
Results: Prenatal consultations were less frequent and initiated later for women without Social Security than for controls. There was no difference between these two groups concerning maternal morbidity (premature labour, hypertension, gestational diabetes, post-partum complications) or maternal mortality, no difference for the mode of delivery and the rate of low birth-weight, foetal death, and neonatal morbidity (hypoglycaemia, hypocalcemia, anaemia, jaundice, infection and transfer to intensive care unit). The rate of prematurity was not significantly higher in the group without Social Security compared to the control group (11.1% versus 6.2%, P=0.08). However, in the group with Social Security and a court sentence of child mother separation, the rate of fetal growth retardation, prematurity, home delivery, caesarean section, neonatal drug deprivation syndrome and transfer to an intensive care unit was significantly higher compared to the two other groups (P<0.01).
Conclusion: In our study, absence of Social Security during pregnancy is not a major determinant of poor pregnancy outcome, whereas other factors of precarity seem to be more influential.