Time of Pregnancy Recognition and Prenatal Care Use: A Population‐based Study in the United States

Abstract

Early pregnancy recognition was associated with improved timing and number of prenatal care visits. Promotion of early pregnancy recognition could be a means of improving birth outcomes by encouraging and empowering women to access prenatal care at a critical point in fetal development.

Access to and utilization of prenatal care services in the Unified Health System of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…This was associated with the expansion of health care coverage for this group, suggesting that the increase in access promotes the early start of prenatal care 19 . A similar result was found for access to consultations and women with health coverage in the United States had a higher number of prenatal consultations 18 . In the present study, where pregnant women were provided prenatal care by SUS units, the difficulties in access reported are probably associated with the geographic distribution of these units in the city, availability of human resources and organizational barriers when setting up consultations.…”

“…Marital status has been pointed out as a factor associated with inadequate prenatal care in other studies, both in the city of Rio de Janeiro 9,22 and other locations 7,11,18,21 . This is one of the aspects that best explained the difference in inadequacy of prenatal care in cohorts of the cities of Ribeirão Preto and São Luiz do Maranhão 10 .…”

“…There was a lower proportion of pregnant women with an adequate number of consultations among adolescents. A lower level of adequacy of prenatal care in adolescents 8,9,10,18 , especially the younger ones 19,22 , and women aged more than 35 years 7 has been identified in other assessment studies, pointing to the need for different strategies according to specific age groups.…”

“…A large population-based study representative of 29 American states showed that the early diagnosis of pregnancy (until the 6 th gestational week) increased the chance of early start of prenatal care by six times, in addition to increasing the chance of having a higher number of prenatal consultations 18 . Authors considered the early diagnosis of pregnancy as one of the factors that may influence women's behavior towards prenatal care use, enabling an earlier start, and this may be improved through educational programs and other means.…”

Construct Validity of the Childbirth Trauma Index for Adolescents

“…Stress related to an unwanted pregnancy may lead to feelings of embarrassment, financial difficulties, denial, or early termination of the pregnancy. Ayoola, Nettleman, Stommel, and Canady (2010) discussed the connection between early recognition of pregnancy and improved timing with number of prenatal visits. Four important risk factors at birth explored as influencing birth trauma include (1) pain in labor, (2) support in labor, (3) type of birth, and (4) control (Ayers, 2004).…”