UCB MCAH Publications

MCAH Publications

Association of Maternity Leave Characteristics and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms among Women in New York

Hecht HK, Nguyen AN, Harley KG.
2024

Introduction: The United States is the only high-income country without a comprehensive national maternity leave policy guaranteeing paid, job-projected leave. The current study examined associations between maternity leave characteristics (duration of leave, payment status of leave) and postpartum depressive symptoms.

Methods: This study used a sample of 3,515 postpartum women from the New York City and New York State Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) from 2016 to 2019. We used logistic regression to examine the association of...

Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes in US-Born and Non-US-Born Black Pregnant People in the US

Jiles M, Prata N, Harley KG.
2024

Importance: With disparate Black maternal health outcomes in the US and a steadily expanding non-US-born Black population, it is beneficial to investigate Black maternal health outcomes by country of origin.

Objective: To compare the prevalence of maternal morbidity and infant birth outcomes between US-born and non-US-born Black populations in the US.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study included all registered hospital births in the US from the 2021 National Vital Statistics Systems (NVSS) Natality...

Maternal mortality estimation methodologies: a scoping review and evaluation of suitability for use in humanitarian settings

Erhardt-Ohren B, McCoy SI, Feehan DM, Haar RJ, Prata N.
2024

Background: Around the world, a maternal death occurs approximately every two minutes-most of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality ratio is a key indicator for the Sustainable Development Goals, yet we have no reliable way to estimate maternal deaths in refugee or internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and settlements. The goal of this study was to understand the methodologies most suited for adaptation for use to estimate the proportion of maternal mortality due to abortion complications in these settings.

Methods: We conducted a...

A descriptive summary of the WHO availability assessments of medical abortion medicines in eight African countries

Grossman A, Prata N, Jones S, Läser L, Ganatra B, Lavelanet A, Williams N, Asmani C, Elamin H, Ouedraogo L, Maribe LS, Gbenou DV, Hien YC, Dadjoari M, Dao F, Gbanzi MCA, Kanke RM, Kanumpepa FB, Dlamini D, Mefane GM, Bantiewalu SH, Brantuo MNA, et al.
2024

Background: The use of medical abortion using either a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, or misoprostol alone has contributed to increased safety and decreased mortality and morbidity. The availability of quality medical abortion medicines is an essential component in the provision of quality abortion care. Understanding the factors that influence the availability of medical abortion medicines is important to help in-country policymakers, program planners, and providers improve availability and use of medical abortion.

Methods: Using a...

The association between perceived neighborhood social cohesion and intimate partner violence in a refugee camp in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia

Astatke RH, Woldegiorgis T, Scott J, Prata N, Harley KG, Deyessa N, Bennett A, Sharma V
2025

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of gender-based violence affecting women and girls worldwide and is exacerbated in humanitarian settings. There is evidence that neighborhood social processes influence IPV. Perceived neighborhood social cohesion (P-NSC)-a measure of community trust, attachment, safety, and reciprocity-may be protective against women's experience of and men's perpetration of IPV and controlling behaviors.

Methods: A quantitative social network study, comprised of individual verbally-administered...

Landscape assessment of the availability of medical abortion medicines in India

Karna P, Sharma KA, Grossman A, Gupta M, Chatterjee T, Williams N, Prata N, Sorhaindo A, Läser L, Loi UR, Ganatra B, Chaudhary P
2024

Background: Medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol can be provided up to 63 days' gestation in India. This accounts for 67.5 percent of all abortions in the country. We conducted an assessment to determine the availability of medical abortion medicines, specifically the combi-pack, in India.

Methods: We applied the World Health Organization landscape assessment protocol at the national level. The assessment protocol included a five-step adaptation of an existing availability framework, including online data collection, desk review,...

The association of experiences of medical mistrust and mistreatment and ever considering self-managing an abortion

Adler A, Antonia Biggs M, Kaller S, Schroeder R, Prata N, Scott K, Ralph L
2024

Objective: To assess the prevalence of ever considering self-managing an abortion (SMA) and its associations with experiences of medical mistrust and mistreatment in a nationally representative sample.

Study design: In 2021-22, we conducted a national, cross-sectional, online probability-based survey of US people assigned female at birth ages 15-49. Among those who had ever been pregnant, we ran weighted multivariable logistic regressions to examine whether having had difficulty trusting medical providers and/or experiencing medical mistreatment was...

"Africans, we know how to adapt indeed": Adaptations to family planning and reproductive health services in humanitarian settings in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic

Evens, E., Ambrose, A., Bello, B., Murray, K., Tefouet, N., Fatusi, A., Nwagbara, B., Riungu, M., Maji, T., Khamofu, H., Fotso, J. C., & Prata, N.
2023

On March 30, 2020, the Government of Nigeria implemented its first COVID-19 related lockdown. We worked with two humanitarian projects in Nigeria, the Integrated Humanitarian Assistance to Northeast Nigeria (IHANN II) in Borno State and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees South-South Health and Nutrition Intervention (UNHCR-SS-HNIR) for Cameroon Refugees and vulnerable populations in Cross River State, to document the programmatic adaptations to Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH) services in response to COVID-19 and identify successes and challenges of those...

Abortion access barriers shared in "r/abortion" after Roe: a qualitative analysis of a Reddit community post- Dobbs decision leak in 2022

Pleasants E, Weidert K, Parham L, Anderson E, Dolgins E, Cheshire C, Marshall C, Prata N, Upadhyay U
2024

With drastic changes to abortion policy, the months following the Dobbs leak and subsequent decision in 2022 were a uniquely uncertain and difficult time for abortion access in the United States. To understand experiences of challenges to abortion access during that time, we used a hybrid inductive and deductive thematic coding approach to analyse descriptions of barriers and their impacts shared in an abortion subreddit (r/abortion). A simple random sample of 10% of posts was obtained from those shared from 02 May 2022 through 23 December 2022; comments were purposively...

Facilitators and Barriers to Medicaid Doula Benefit Implementation in California: Perspectives From Managed Care Plans and Risk-Bearing Organizations

Marshall C, Nguyen A, Yang CE, Gómez AM
2024

Introduction: Medicaid coverage of doula services is increasing as a policy strategy to reduce maternal health inequities in the United States. However, early adopter states struggled to offer accessible, equitable Medicaid doula benefits when implementation began. California began covering doula services through its Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, in 2023. Managed care plans (MCPs) and risk-bearing organizations (RBOs) play an important role in ensuring pregnant and birthing people can access doula support through Medicaid benefits.

Materials and methods:...