Obstetric and Perinatal Events: The Accuracy of Maternal Report

Physicians commonly rely on maternal recall of events during pregnancy, delivery, and the perinatal period. Investigators who are doing research in the reproductive and perinatal areas also rely on maternal recall. However, there is little information regarding its accuracy. This study evaluates the accuracy of maternal knowledge of events during pregnancy, delivery, and the perinatal period by comparing maternal report with information recorded on the medical records of the mother-infant pair. Results are presented as sensitivity, specificity, and chance-corrected agreement. Mothers demonstrated poor knowledge of pregnancy and delivery-room events. Agreement between maternal reports and hospital records was excellent for infant birth weight and type of delivery, and good for infant jaundice. However, other important areas of the infant's history, such as an evaluation for sepsis, were poorly recalled. The implications of these results are both medical- and research-specific. Physicians must be aware of possible inaccuracies in the mother's history and make every attempt to obtain the nursery discharge summary. In addition, researchers must verify the results of their data when relying on maternal recall, with the exception of infant birth weight and method of delivery.