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Feature Articles for September, 2003
 The percentage of births to women receiving late or no prenatal care declined substantially during the 1990s, from 6.1 percent in 1990 to 3.6 percent by 2002, according to preliminary estimates. Importance Mothers who receive late or no prenatal care are more likely to have babies with health problems. Inadequate nutrition, smoking, anemia, and diabetes, all of which can affect pregnancy outcomes, can be addressed by appropriate prenatal care. Getting late or no prenatal care is associated with a greater likelihood of having babies who are low birthweight or still-born or who die in the first year of life. However, there is concern among some health researchers that increased use of prenatal care alone may not be sufficient to bring substantial further improvements in birth outcomes. Many women who lack adequate care also have social risk factors related to low socioeconomic status and young age that cannot be fully addressed through more adequate prenatal care. Trends Despite an interruption during the 1980s, there has been a long-term downward trend in the percentage of women receiving late or no prenatal care. Over the past decade, this percentage dropped by more than a third, from 6.1 percent in 1990 to 3.6 percent in 2002. This improvement in prenatal care occurred for all racial groups. Differences by Race and Ethnicity In 2001, American Indian and Alaska Native women were the most likely to receive late or no prenatal care (8.2 percent), followed by non-Hispanic black women (6.5 percent) and Hispanic women (5.9 percent). In contrast, only 3.4 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women and 2.2 percent of non-Hispanic white women received late or no prenatal care in 2001. There is substantial variation in prenatal care receipt by subgroups within both the Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander categories. Among Hispanics, the percentage of women receiving late or no prenatal care ranged between 1.3 percent for mothers of Cuban origin to 6.2 percent for mothers of Mexican origin in 2001. Similarly, among Asian/Pacific Islander women, the percentage receiving late or no prenatal care ranged between 2.0 percent for mothers of Japanese origin and 4.8 percent for mothers of Hawaiian and part Hawaiian origin. Differences by Age Young women in their teens are by far the most likely to receive late or no prenatal care. In 2001, 16.8 percent of girls under age 15 and 8.4 percent of girls ages 15-17 received late or no prenatal care. Among young women 18-19, 6.2 percent received late or no prenatal care. This percentage drops steadily with increasing age, reaching a low of 2.3 percent for women in their early thirties. Definition Late or no prenatal care is the percentage of births that occurred to mothers who reported receiving prenatal care only in the third trimester of their pregnancy, or reported receiving no prenatal care. Courtesy of Child Trends Data Bank www.childrentrendsdatabank.org Copyright © 2003 Child Trends. |
