OBJECTIVES We addressed the question of whether use of adequate prenatal care differs between foreign-born and Italian mothers and estimated the extent to which unobservable characteristics bias results. SETTING This study is on primary care and especially on adequate access to prenatal healthcare services by immigrant mothers. PARTICIPANTS Approximately 37,000 mothers of both Italian and f...

OBJECTIVES to identify midwives' perceptions about adolescents' failure to utilise prenatal services or to initiate such utilisation late during their pregnancies. DESIGN a quantitative descriptive and exploratory design, using questionnaires to collect data, to describe midwives' perceptions about factors influencing pregnant adolescents' non-utilisation or late utilisation of prenatal servi...

In this article we present the results of three studies investigating methods for including men in antenatal education in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants were first-time expectant parents living in low and middle-income areas. After a formative study on the roles of various family members in health during the period surrounding a first birth, an antenatal-clinic-based education programme for wom...

BACKGROUND Over the last decades there has been a reduction of social inequalities in Brazil, as well as a strong expansion of health services, including prenatal care. The objective of the present study was to estimate the rate of inadequate prenatal care utilization and its associated factors in São Luís, Brazil, in 2010 and to determine whether there was a reduction of inequity in prenatal c...

The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of Turkish pregnant women and antenatal health care providers towards prenatal HIV testing. A self-administered questionnaire was used. The relationships between the different groups' knowledge and attitudes were analysed by using the chi-squared statistic. A total of 494 pregnant women and 181 care providers participated. Forty-four per cent of...

OBJECTIVE We assessed how health system priorities matched user expectations and what the needs for antenatal care (ANC) strengthening were for improved maternal health in Jimma, Ethiopia. METHODS A questionnaire survey among all recent mothers in the study area was conducted to study the content of ANC and to identify the predictors of low ANC satisfaction. Further, a qualitative approach wa...

This study aims to understand the production of comprehensive care in prenatal care in a Basic Unity of Family Health in Fortaleza. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a user, whose prenatal care was provided by a Basic Unity of Family Health, as well as systematic observations of her prenatal care appointments. Data analysis, conducted according to Merhy’s analytic flowch...

BACKGROUND We used population-based data to determine the public's views of prenatal and postnatal mental health and to identify predictors of those views. METHODS A computer-assisted telephone survey was conducted by the Population Health Laboratory (University of Alberta) with a random sample of participants from the province of Alberta, Canada. Respondents were eligible to participate if t...

PURPOSE To explore Ghanaian pregnant women's understanding and recognition of danger signs in pregnancy, birth preparedness and complication readiness, and their understanding of newborn care. DESIGN An exploratory, qualitative study design was used. METHODS Data were gathered through six focus group discussions with 68 pregnant women attending antenatal care at a busy urban hospital in Gha...