Bereaved mothers showed significantly more anxiety/depression than controls at all four interviews. For bereaved fathers, anxiety/depression differed significantly from controls only at two months. Heavy alcohol use was significantly more prevalent at 2 and 30 months. Relative risks showed significant gender differences between bereaved parents at all four interviews for anxiety/depression. When this outcome was extended to include heavy drinking in addition to anxiety/depression, these differences diminished and were significant only at 2 and 8 months. CONCLUSION. Female responses are longer lasting and reflected by elevated levels of anxiety/depression. Male responses equally involve anxiety, depression and heavy alcohol consumption.

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A prospective cohort of 8556 pregnant women attending the Mater Misericordiae Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane was examined to consider the impact of socioeconomic status on pregnancy outcome. The indicators of socio-economic status selected were family income, maternal education and paternal occupational status. Pregnancy out-comes considered were preterm delivery, low birthweight, low birthweight for gestational age, and perinatal death. Subsidiary analyses were also undertaken for Apgar scores, time to establish respiration, need for mechanical respiration and admission to intensive care. Before adjustment, the main consistent association was between the occupational status of the father and three measures of perinatal morbidity. Initial adjustment for the mother's socio-demographic background and weight/height ratio reduced the strength and statistical significance of the above associations, while further adjustment for lifestyle variations between the three status groups further reduced the above associations to marginal statistical significance. The findings suggest that observed class differences in pregnancy outcome are attributable to the mother's personal characteristics (height/weight 2 , parity) and her lifestyle.

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