Obstetric outcomes address the health and wellbeing of both the mother and the baby throughout the prenatal, perinatal, postnatal, and neonatal periods:
- Prenatal Outcomes: Health and development outcomes of the mother and fetus during pregnancy and before birth. Examples include gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.
- Perinatal Outcomes: Health and development outcomes of the mother and child around the time of birth, typically from the 22nd week of gestation to 7 days after birth. This includes birth weight, Apgar scores and preterm birth.
- Postnatal Outcomes: Health and development outcomes of the mother and child after birth, generally focusing on the first six weeks after birth. This can include maternal recovery, breastfeeding success and postpartum depression.
- Neonatal Outcomes: Health and development outcomes of the child from birth to 28 days of life. Examples include neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions, respiratory distress syndrome and congenital anomalies (birth defects).
Because of the overlap of these periods, some outcomes might fall into multiple categories. For example, birthweight can be considered a perinatal, postnatal and neonatal outcome.
In some cases, I’ll use the term adverse pregnancy outcomes to refer to harmful outcomes that occur to the mother during pregnancy, like preeclampsia or diabetes, or adverse birth outcomes to refer to harmful outcomes that occur to the child after birth, like birth defects or low birth weight.
It can be confusing, and different studies will often use their preferred terms (which may not be consistent with other studies). When I do a review of a study on this site, I’ll usually use the terms that the authors use. In general, and as far as I can tell, these can all be considered “obstetric outcomes.”