# [Table 10 here]

Even though the survey data used in this section have some noted limitations, primarily that prevalence of the behaviors before conception and the timing during the pregnancy are not known,<sup>61</sup> the results presented are suggestive of changes in key maternal behaviors important for newborn outcomes, and overall, in a negative direction for mothers who give birth to baby girls. Some potential explanations behind these patterns of behavioral change emerge from the literature. Parents may respond differently to the shock depending on the gender of the baby, for example, if they knew that male fetuses are more vulnerable and need more protection from shocks (Bharadwaj and Lakdawala 2013). It is known that intra-household allocations are not even, with parents investing more in the human capital of their preferred children (e.g. Do and Phung 2010). Hence, it would be possible that, as investments in the baby’s health, the differential maternal behaviors responses are driven by biased gender preferences held by parents. This would be hard to corroborate, not least because, to my knowledge, there is no evidence of boy preference in Colombia that could easily substantiate the claim.<sup>62</sup> Although the surveys do not have enough information to say whether these changes occurred before or after knowing the gender of the baby, it is likely, as most of the changes were associated with exposure to violence in the later stages of pregnancy, when the gender of the fetus is likely be known.<sup>63</sup>

# **VI. Conclusion**

This study set out to analyze one indirect effect of war violence: the one caused by exposure of pregnant women on their newborns’ health. Violent attacks against civilians were used to capture such exposure, which emphasizes the experience of violence in the community where people live, because the distress, fear and anxiety do not arise exclusively through individual victimization. The identification of the effect relied in the variation of exposure to violence by municipality of residence of the mother while pregnant, and the gestation stage when violence occurs.

The main finding was that mothers exposed to violence during early-pregnancy gave birth to babies who weighed less and had higher odds of being underweight. This effect was visible for the sub-sample of baby boys, but not of baby girls, and when focusing on newborns whose mothers were at the lower end of the maternal education distribution. This finding has implications for the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage, since it indicates that the children of disadvantaged women exposed to in utero shocks are born with poorer health. Pregnancy is a key developmental stage, and the poorer health at birth of these children can result in lifelong disparities in health and in other areas of well-being. The benefits of early-life interventions are particularly cost-effective in the long-run (Heckman 2000); a priority for policies seeking to reduce disparities in outcomes would be to protect vulnerable expecting mothers from shocks or to provide avenues, beyond the easing of financial constraints, to alleviate their negative effects. The outcomes analyzed in this study referred to specific aspects of newborn health, namely growth and early-life mortality, but

> 61 For instance, we do not know if the women smoked during the first, second or third trimester nor whether she also did it before conception. Also, because these survey questions are only asked to women (of reproductive age) who had a live birth within five years of the survey, it is impossible to assess them for pregnancies where the fetus did not survive to birth.

> 62 If anything, according to mothers’ statements in DHS surveys, the bias would slightly favour girls. For instance, the reported share of unintended pregnancies is 23.02% when the baby is a girl, and 23.4% when it is a boy.

> 63 This is around the 18th-20th week (second trimester), and prenatal ultrasounds are common and widely accessed in Colombia.

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