BACKGROUND Low socioeconomic status can increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, but it remains unclear whether this negative association is attributed to inadequate prenatal care. Korea has been adopting a universal healthcare system. All Korean citizens must be enrolled National Health Insurance (NHI) or be recipient of Medical Aid (MA). In addition, Korean government launched a finan...

BACKGROUND Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI), implemented in 1995, substantially increased the number of health care facilities that can deliver free prenatal care. Because of the increase in such facilities, it is usually assumed that women would have more choices regarding prenatal care facilities and thus experience reduction in travel cost. Nevertheless, there has been no research ex...

This cross-sectional study counted with the participation of 301 pregnant women seen in 2009 at a philanthropic maternity hospital in the city of São Paulo (a prenatal support program named Pré-Natal do Amparo Maternal - PN-AM). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prenatal care according to the initial gestational age, the number of appointments that were held, the continuity of t...

Obstetrical (OB) access was a Medicaid pilot project that operated in 13 California counties from July 1979 through June 1982. The project goals were to both improve access to care in underserved areas and improve pregnancy outcomes by providing enhanced prenatal care, including psychosocial, health education, and nutrition services. The project registered 6,774 women. The findings were: 87 per...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the factors associated with a lack of prenatal care in a large municipality in southern Brazil. METHODS In this case-control age-matched study, 716 women were evaluated; of these, 179 did not receive prenatal care and 537 received prenatal care (controls). These women were identified using the Sistema Nacional de Informação sobre Nascidos Vivos (Live Birth Information Syste...

BACKGROUND One of the important health indicators in every society is maternal and neonatal health status. Provision of the best prenatal care can reduce mortality rate in these two susceptible groups. This study focused on the effect of maternal care log book on pregnancy outcome. METHODS This was a clinical trial and 180 samples were randomly selected from the mothers referred to private of...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the technical and scientific quality of care provided adolescents, pregnant adolescents and their offspring by the Emaús community's health service in Belém, state of Pará, Brazil, between 1994 and 1996. METHODS Data for population and health care assessment were collected from medical records and compared with the PAHO/WHO and Brazilian Ministry of Health guidelines. ...