Paradox lost on the U.S.-Mexico border: U.S. Latinas and cesarean rates. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: We apply Intersectional Theory to examine how compounded disadvantage affects the odds of women having a cesarean in U.S.-Mexico border hospitals and in non-border hospitals. We define U.S. Latinas with compounded disadvantage as those who have neither a college education nor private health insurance. RESULTS: Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers III Survey, we find that, consistent with the notion of the Latinx Health Paradox, compounded disadvantage serves as a protective buffer and decreases the odds of cesarean among women in non-border hospitals. However, the Latinx Health Paradox is absent on the border. CONCLUSION: Our data show that women with compounded disadvantage who give birth on the border have significantly higher odds of a cesarean compared to women without such disadvantage. Further, women with compounded disadvantage who give birth in border hospitals report receiving insufficient prenatal, pregnancy, and postpartum information, providing a direction for future research to explain the border disparity in cesareans.

published proceedings

  • BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

altmetric score

  • 10.93

author list (cited authors)

  • Morris, T., Gomez, A., Naiman-Sessions, M., & Morton, C. H.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Morris, Theresa||Gomez, Amanda||Naiman-Sessions, Miriam||Morton, Christine H

publication date

  • January 2018