Pregnancy Outcomes Among U.S. Women With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Women with IDD get sicker and stay longer in labor—give them extra time, clear info, and advocacy every visit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ohan et al. (2015) pulled hospital records for pregnant women who had an intellectual or developmental disability. They matched each woman with a peer who had no disability and compared what happened during birth.
The team looked at length of stay, C-section rates, and problems like early labor or high blood pressure.
What they found
Women with IDD stayed in the hospital longer. They had more C-sections and higher rates of preterm birth and preeclampsia.
Every major bad outcome showed up more often for the IDD group.
How this fits with other research
Udhnani et al. (2025) talked to 16 mothers with IDD and heard the same story: care felt rushed, confusing, and often rude. Their words back up the numbers L et al. found.
Baixauli et al. (2019) dug deeper into the same hospital data and showed Black and Hispanic women with IDD face double the stillbirth risk and pay more for delivery. The 2015 paper found the overall gap; the 2019 paper shows the gap is even wider for women of color.
Together the three studies form a clear line: first count the harm, then show who is hit hardest, then let mothers explain why.
Why it matters
If you serve women with IDD, treat pregnancy as high-risk from the first visit. Schedule longer appointments, use plain language, and coordinate with obstetrics. Ask about race-based barriers too. Simple steps like a visual birth plan or an advocate in the room can cut the extra days and danger these moms face.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The existing research on pregnancy outcomes for women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is sparse. This study analyzed the 2010 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample and compared deliveries among women with IDD (n = 340) to the general obstetric population. Women with IDD had longer hospital stays and were more likely to have Caesarean deliveries in contrast to other women. Rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes were elevated for women with IDD across a range of measures, including early labor, preterm birth, and preeclampsia, and their infants were more likely to have low birth weight, even after adjusting for age, race, ethnicity, and insurance type. Targeted interventions are needed to address these deleterious outcomes.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-120.5.433