Infant's sex, birth control policy and postpartum well-being: a prospective cohort study in Shanghai, China

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Huang, J., Zhu, L., Du, W. ORCID: 0000-0002-5115-7214, Luo, T. and Wu, Z., 2016. Infant's sex, birth control policy and postpartum well-being: a prospective cohort study in Shanghai, China. BMJ Open, 6 (10), e012207. ISSN 2044-6055

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012207

Abstract

Objectives: The Chinese government loosed its birth control policy and allowed the parents to have the second child if both of the parent were from one-child family from 2001. We explore the association between infant’s sex and mother’s postpartum well-being, which may be moderated by birth control policy status in China.

Setting and Participants: We conducted a prospective cohort study in Shanghai City, one of the largest cities in China. A total number of 1730 childbearing women from 8 obstetric hospitals across Shanghai were included in the study at baseline, with 1503 women completing the survey 7 days postpartum in 2013.
Measures: The General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) was used to assess maternal well-being at baseline and follow-up investigation in the study. Women’s demographic, clinical characteristic, and well-being were measured at baseline. The maternal satisfaction and postpartum well-being were assessed in the follow-up survey.
Results The results of multivariable linear regression analyses showed that women who gave birth to male infants were positively associated with the total score of maternal well-being, when the participated hospitals, maternal well-being at baseline, the socio-demographic characteristic, maternal and infant’s health outcome were added to the adjustments (β=1.462, P<0.05). The association disappeared when the two-child policy status was added to be adjusted (P>0.05). The results of multiple logistic regression model showed that having a male infant was a protective factor of ‘positive well-being’ (OR=0.622, P<0.05), which was moderated by the two-child policy status (P>0.05).
Conclusions: Our results emphasize the importance in conducting intervention to increase the general well-being, especially for those with a female infant in a son preference society such as China, and enhance the necessity of sustainability of newly relaxed two-child policy which allows more couples to have the second child in China.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

BMJ Open

Creators:

Huang, J., Zhu, L., Du, W., Luo, T. and Wu, Z.

Publisher:

BMJ Publishing Group

Date:

2016

Volume:

Number: