Greener Living Environment Increases Chances of Better Birth Outcomes: Study

If you are a pregnant woman, try to stay in neighborhoods with lots of greenery. A new research has showed, mothers who live in green neighbourhoods are more likely to deliver at full term and their babies are born at higher weights compared to mothers who live in urban areas that are not as green. For the study, researchers examined data of more than 64,000 births. The study found that extreme pre-term births were 20 percent lower and moderate pre-term births were 13 percent lower for infants whose mothers lived in greener neighborhoods. Researchers also said that fewer infants from greener neighborhoods were considered small for their gestational age.

"From a medical standpoint, those are small changes in birth weight, but across a large population, those are substantial differences that would have a significant impact on the health of infants in a community," said Perry Hystad, an environmental epidemiologist in the College of Public Health, Human Sciences at Oregon State and lead author of the study.

The researchers were not able to find out the exact mechanism behind this phenomenon and recommend further researches to be carried out on this topic. However, one speculation is that green space provides more social opportunities and enhances a person's sense of belonging in the community. Researchers also speculate that more greenery has a psychological effect, which reduces stress and depression, leading to better birth outcomes.

"We know a lot about the negative influences such as living closer to major roads, but demonstrating that a design choice can have benefits is really uplifting. With the high cost of healthcare, modifying urban design features such as increasing green space may turn out to be extremely cost-effective strategies to prevent disease, while at the same time also providing ecological benefits," Hystad added.

The research was conducted by researchers from Oregon State University and the University of British Columbia. Findings of the study were published recently in the Journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Source-Medindia