Pregnancy planning does not interfere with child development in children aged from 11 to 23 months old.

Katherine Solís-Cordero,Luciana Assis Couto,Ana Luiza Vilela Borges,Luciane Simões Duarte,Elizabeth Fujimori

doi:10.1590/1518-8345.5356.3506

Abstract

Objective:to analyze the correlation between child development and pregnancy planning and other associated aspects.Method:a cross-sectional study conducted with 125 mother-child dyads, the children aged from 11 to 23 months old and attending daycare centers located in socially disadvantaged areas. Child development according to domains was assessed using the Ages & Stages Questionnaire-BR and pregnancy planning was evaluated through the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy. The mothers were interviewed at their homes and non-parametric tests were used for data analysis.Results:17.6% of the pregnancies were unplanned, 24.8% were planned and 57.6% were ambivalent. Inadequate development in the different domains ranged from 21% to 40% and was not associated with pregnancy planning. However, the “communication” domain was associated with Bolsa Família and the “personal/social” and “communication” domains, with gender; while “personal/social”, “broad motor coordination” and “fine motor coordination” were domains related to the child’s age.Conclusion:no correlation between pregnancy planning and child development was observed; however, the low frequency of planned pregnancies and the high percentages of inadequate child development show the need to invest in the training of health professionals, both for contraceptive care and preconception health and for the promotion of child development, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts.

Highlights

Child development involves physical growth, neurological maturation, and acquisition of cognitive and psychosocial functions[1]
In the United Kingdom, a cohort study revealed that children whose mothers reported having unplanned pregnancies had worse cognitive development at three and five years of age, but this association disappeared when adjusted by socioeconomic variables[9]
In Brazil, the only research study that investigated this correlation evidenced that it is not planning, but acceptance of the pregnancy that is associated with child development, so that children born to women who did not accept the pregnancy had greater difficulty in language development and fine motor coordination at four years old, when compared to children born to mothers who accepted pregnancy up to the 4th month[10]

Summary

Introduction

Child development involves physical growth, neurological maturation, and acquisition of cognitive and psychosocial functions[1]. In Brazil, the only research study that investigated this correlation evidenced that it is not planning, but acceptance of the pregnancy that is associated with child development, so that children born to women who did not accept the pregnancy had greater difficulty in language development and fine motor coordination at four years old, when compared to children born to mothers who accepted pregnancy up to the 4th month[10] In another cohort from the United Kingdom, it was verified that children whose mothers did not want to get pregnant had a lower socio-emotional development score at five years of age[11]. A North American study did not find any association between intention to become pregnant and cognitive or social-emotional child development[13]

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Discussion

Conclusion