Midwest Birth Outcomes and Indigenous American Pregnancy

Indigenous American pregnancies in the Midwest have disproportionally high rates of adverse outcomes, however little research has been done on how historical trauma and stress may impact these adverse outcomes. This project gathers data from pregnant Indigenous American women on their experiences with historical trauma, stress, and birth outcomes, as well as physiological data of how they respond to stress, in order to better understand the associations between these factors and the biological mechanisms underlying them. Understanding the mechanisms by which both historical and proximal stress "get under the skin" and influence pregnancy health and perinatal outcomes, will afford new targets of intervention to help reduce these IA health disparities.