Concealed pregnancy: prevalence, perinatal measures and socio-demographics.

A target group of women who concealed their pregnancy (n = 43) was compared to an aged-matched control group (n = 30) that experienced a crisis pregnancy. Comparisons were also made with a larger dataset (n = 6363) of births in University Hospital Galway (UHG) (normative group). Data was analysed using the Chi-square test and the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff two-sample test. The number of women from the target group that were from a rural background was 28 (65%), compared to 10 (33%) from the control group. The number of women from the target group that feared a negative parental reaction to the pregnancy was 34 (79%), compared to 12 (40%) from the control group. The birth weight in the target group was 4009 lower than the normative birth weight. The average age of women who concealed was 8 years lower than the normative age. The prevalence of concealed pregnancy in UHG was one in every 148 births.