Objective  To explore the relationship between pregnancy exposure to household chemicals and adverse birth outcomes.

  Methods  Totally 1 000 pregnant women were recruited during their 1st prenatal care at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from August 2015 through December 2016. The pregnant women were interviewed with a self-designed questionnaire to collect relevant information including household chemical use and followed up. The health status during pregnancy and pregnancy outcome of the women were extracted from their medical records. The association between pregnancy exposure to five kinds of household chemicals were analyzed with Chi-square test and logistic regression.

  Results  Of the 708 participants with completed information, 27.26%, 3.81%, 2.82%, 2.12%, and 1.84% reported the use of mosquito repellents, insecticides, cosmetics, air fresheners, and hair dyes and perm, respectively. Chi-square test and Fisher exact analysis demonstrated that the participants with air freshener use during pregnancy had a significantly higher detection rate of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and those with insecticide use had a significantly higher incidence of premature birth compared to the participants not using the two kinds of chemicals (both P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the use of air fresheners during pregnancy was significantly associated with GDM (odds ratio OR = 3.62, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.29 – 10.92) and the use of insecticides during pregnancy was significantly associated with premature birth (OR = 5.47, 95% CI: 1.51 – 15.82) after adjusting for potential confounding variables.

  Conclusion  During pregnancy, maternal use of air fresheners may be associated with an increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus and that of insecticides with an increased risk of premature birth.