ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the possibility of a nonhuman primate model for the experimental study of the causes, consequences, and possible prevention of poor pregnancy outcomes. It assesses the outcomes of high risk pregnancies, such as prematurity and low birth weight, and the differential effects of various early environments on males and females. Considerations include: the human data on the causes and effects of poor pregnancy outcomes and sex differences in susceptibility to abnormal development, the results of an epidemiological study of pregnancies in a pigtail macaque breeding colony, and related human data. It also includes the differential effects of privation rearing conditions on male and female rhesus monkeys. The chapter presents some ideas concerning the appropriateness of an experimental, nonhuman primate model to study risk factors involved in abnormal human development. It also presents evidence that male monkeys are at a substantially greater risk for abnormal development following postnatal deprivation conditions.
