Babies of immigrant parents at greater risk of stillbirth: Canadian study

globalnews.ca:

As Canada’s immigration grows, a new study suggests babies born to immigrant parents are at an increased risk of complications at birth.The rate of stillbirth, which is fetal death occurring after 20 weeks of gestation or at a birth weight of at least 500 grams, was higher among immigrant parents when compared to native Canadians, according to research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Tuesday.The likelihood of preterm birth, when the baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed, was also higher for immigrant parents admitted into Canada on an economic and family reunification basis, as well as for refugees.Researchers at McGill University and Université de Montréal looked at Statistics Canada data of nearly eight million Canadian births – out of which 21 per cent were to immigrants – over a 25-year period between 1993 and 2017.“We found differences in outcomes not only between Canadian-born parents and immigrants, but also by the admission category among immigrants,” said Seungmi Yang, study co-author and associate professor in the department of epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health at McGill University, in an interview with Global News.“Births to immigrant parents had increased risk of several but not all adverse outcomes,” the authors wrote in the study.While the risk of small for gestational age (SGA) birth was higher among the immigrant population, there was a lower risk of large for gestational age (LGA) birth compared to Canadian-born parents, the study found.SGA birth is when the baby is born with a birth weight below the 10^th percentile among an infant population of the same sex and gestational age.

LGA birth is defined as the birth weight above the 90^th percen