equipment may still have been used more widely in West Berlin and efforts aimed at regionalization of high-risk pregnancies may have met with more success in East Berlin during the first five-year period following political unification, the associations of most variables with VLBW were similar in East and West Berlin.

Nevertheless, for single-mother status the univariate analyses revealed a considerable difference in odds ratios between the two parts of Berlin, being in West Berlin more than twice that in East Berlin. Multivariate logistic regression with inclusion of interaction terms verified single-mother status to be a risk factor strongly depending on the part of Berlin the mother lived in, confirming the assumption that certain risk factors act differently in different political frameworks. The important effect of living in East orin West Berlin on single-mother status as a VLBW risk factor partly resides in different attitudes fostered by the state (in East Berlin) or churches (in West Berlin). Single mother status has been largely acceptable in East Berlin, and the percentage of single mothers in East Berlin was twice that in West Berlin. Single mothers had easier access to subsidized housing in East Berlin. In particular, single-mother status was much less indicative of low socio-economic status in East Berlin, as compared to West Berlin. Traditionally, recognized marriage is being advocated by both the protestant and catholic church, and churches do have a strong legal position in West Germany (and hence West Berlin), whereas religion has been viewed as a completely private (and rather detrimental) matter in East Germany.

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