Introduction Prenatal care adequacy and its relationship to negative birth outcomes continue to be the focus of many health care initiatives. Inadequate prenatal care, failure to initiate care in the first 3 months of pregnancy attributes to negative birth outcomes (Miller & Ruijter, 1999, Keppel, Pearcy & Wagener, 2002). Negative birth outcomes range from congenital defects to maternal complic...

Abuse of drugs by pregnant women both in the United States and worldwide has raised many questions regarding the effects of prenatal drug exposure on the developing fetus and subsequent child outcomes. Studies using the neurobehavioral teratology model have been undertaken to determine specific prenatal drug effects on cognitive and behavioral development. Here we summarize the findings of stud...

Pregnancy constitutes an excellent opportunity for the prevention of cervical carcinoma since the gynecological examination is part of routine prenatal care. A transversal study was conducted in which a total of 445 postnatal women were interviewed using standardized questionnaires. The prevalence of an up-to-date cytopathological exam was 38.9% at the beginning of pregnancy, reaching 59.1% dur...

BACKGROUND Maternal health care utilization is at the core of global public health provision and an area of focus in the now-concluded Millennium Development Goal agenda. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine trends in maternal health care utilization over the last 15 years in Nepal, focusing on coverage and equity. METHODS This paper used data from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2001, ...

BACKGROUND The International Conference on Population Development held in Cairo in 1994 identified the importance of male involvement in reproductive health programs. Since then, there has been an increase in reproductive health initiatives that target both men and women in an attempt to fulfill the 5th Millenium Development Goal. Yet, while the benefits of male involvement have been acknowledg...

The objective of this study was to analyze the exercise of competences in prenatal care performed by nurses in the East Zone of the city of São Paulo through the identification of the activities performed by them and their frequency as well as possible difficulties found. This quantitative, descriptive-exploratory study was carried out in 59 health centers, from October 2006 to December 2007, w...

We document the impact of the AIDS crisis on non-AIDS-related health services in 14 sub-Saharan African countries. Using multiple waves of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for each country, we examine antenatal care, birth deliveries, and rates of immunization for children born between 1988 and 2005. We find deterioration in nearly all these dimensions of health care over this period. The m...

BACKGROUND The role of gender inequities in explaining women's access to reproductive health care was examined in four countries (two sub-Saharan African and two South Asian countries). The extent of gender inequities varies across and within countries, and is rooted in the different cultural practices and gender norms within these different countries, and differences in the status and autonomy...

This study investigates the extent to which exposure armed conflicts during pregnancy influences women’s utilization of prenatal and delivery care in 35 developing countries between 1990 2018. Exploiting variation across residential districts conception months-years a difference-in-differences framework, we find that women exposed tend receive insufficient evident by declines composite indices ...