Morality evolved because it is a necessary survival strategy for social animals, whose infants require years of care before they are capable of independent living.
More than half said they were denied medical care, including two young mothers whose infants became sick while detained in freezing temperatures.
Their blood samples were compared to 409 samples randomly selected from among the women whose infants had no structural birth defects.
There was no difference in response between parents whose infants were no longer dependent and former parents with no current offspring.
Local families denounced the study, saying it would provide no comfort to mothers whose infants had died from heart murmurs and Down syndrome.
It offered $970, a free camcorder, a bib and a T-shirt to parents whose infants were exposed to pesticides in Duval County, Florida, if the parents completed a two-year study, which included "spraying pesticides inside your home routinely".
Fernando González, who helped manage the water supply for Iztapalapa for 32 years, said the health effects of contaminated water were clear to residents whose infants regularly broke out in rashes and whose grandparents suffered colitis.
Either screening with cultures at 28 weeks gestation or identification of clinical risk factors, ie, PROM, intrapartum fever, or prematurity, may identify parturients whose infants include 65% of those with EOGBS infection.
Intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis may be appropriate for other women whose infants are at increased but less extreme risk, and supplemental postpartum prophylaxis may be indicated for some of their infants.
To learn exactly how parents are affected, Richard Shaw, MD, a child psychiatrist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, is studying post-traumatic stress disorder among moms and dads whose infants stayed in a NICU.
"Families whose infants die or suffer permanent disability from NTDs still feel the burden of these defects," said Gary Shaw, DrPH, professor of neonatology and primary author of the new research, which will appear Aug. 14 in Epidemiology.
