The health practices of pregnant woman have a tremendous impact on her health and the health of the fetus during pregnancy. The outcome of the pregnancy in many ways is tied to the woman’s health practices.

I first became interested in the health practices of pregnant women while working toward my Master’s Degree as a Perinatal Clinical Specialist. My clinical experience at that time was with a high-risk inner-city population with overall poor health practices. It was clear that poor health practices, such as smoking, cocaine use, and inadequate nutrition, were contributing to the poor outcomes often seen in the population. My current research interests include looking at other aspects of a woman’s life, such as depression, social support, and attachment to the fetus that may influence health practices. I am developing an instrument to measure, as a group, health practices in pregnancy. After instrument testing has been completed, I plan to use it in studies evaluating health practices in pregnancy across diverse populations. My current work as a nurse-midwife with Spanish speaking pregnant women has also sparked my interest in looking at health practices in this population. Long-term plans include translation of my Health Practices Questionnaire into Spanish and using it to look at health practices cross-culturally.