Contested racial identity— self-identified race not matching socially-assigned race—may be an indication of experiences with racism. We aimed to understand the relationship between contested racial identity and women's health behaviors, health outcomes, and infant health outcomes. We used 2012–2015 Massachusetts Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data on 5735 women linked with infants' birth certificates.
Background West Africa has the highest proportion of married adolescents, and the highest adolescent childbirth rate and maternal death rate in sub-Saharan Africa. However, few studies have focused on the type and quality of health care accessed by pregnant young women in countries in this subregion. Methods We obtained data from Demographic and Health Surveys done between 2010 and 2014, to compare the use, timing, source, and components of antenatal care between adolescent and older first-time mothers in 13 west African countries.
