Midwest Birth Outcomes and Indigenous American Pregnancy

Gestational Age in weeks

Indigenous American pregnancies in the Midwest have disproportionally high rates of adverse
 outcomes, however little research has been done on how historical trauma and stress may
 impact these adverse outcomes. This project gathers data from pregnant Indigenous American
 women on their experiences with historical trauma, stress, and birth outcomes, as well as
 physiological data of how they respond to stress, in order to better understand the
 associations between these factors and the biological mechanisms underlying them.
 Understanding the mechanisms by which both historical and proximal stress get under the
 skin and influence pregnancy health and perinatal outcomes, will afford new targets of
 intervention to help reduce these IA health disparities.