Some social and medical correlates of pregnancy outcome

Factors associated with birthweight: an exploration of the roles of prenatal care and length of gestation.

“…In 1966, Abramowicz and Kass concluded that the published evidence supporting a positive relation between prenatal care and birthweight was inconclusive.2 Using data from the 1972 National Natality Survey, Placek found that absence of prenatal care was associated with low birthweight.3 Studying birth certificate data, Taffel found that a higher number of prenatal visits was associated with normal birthweight, but that mother's education and ethnic group were more important than the timing of the onset of prenatal care in determining low birthweight.4,5 By studying 130,000 births in upstate New York in 1973, Stickle and Ma found that prenatal care that started in the first trimester was associated with better pregnancy outcome. 6 Gortmaker studied vital statistics records for all births in New York City in 1968. 7 He found that-after controlling for a variety of factors, including parent's education, maternal age, length of gestation and adequacy of prenatal care based on Institute of Medicine criteria8-adequate prenatal care was associated with higher birthweights.…”

Barriers to prenatal care in a multiethnic, urban sample

“…The correlation between low birth weight and prenatal care has been the subject of many research studies; some researchers support the concept that prenatal care is important in reducing low birth weight rates, 7,12,13 whereas other researchers indicate that it may be certain demographic characteristics that hinder access to prenatal care, such as ethnicity, lack of education, and low socioeconomic status, that cause low birth weight 8,14 …”

“…During the past two decades, studies indicate that mothers who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds are most likely to receive inadequate prenatal care and to produce low birth weight babies 4–8 . Researchers have suggested that poor financial resources, patient attitudes, and structural barriers in the prenatal care system are the main obstacles to receiving adequate prenatal care 9 …”

Atenção médica à gestação e ao parto de mães adolescentes

“…Vários autores (Stickle & Ma, 1977;Quick, 1981) também encontraram associação entre peso ao nascer e assistência pré-natal, utilizando diferentes critérios para a definição desta assistência. Eisner et al (1979), nos EUA, verificaram que a ausência de assistência pré-natal foi o fator de risco mais intensamente associado ao baixo peso de nascimento.…”