EARLY VERSUS LATE PRENATAL-CARE IN NEW-MEXICO - BARRIERS AND MOTIVATORS

Background: Adequate prenatal care is important for ensuring a good ou tcome for pregnant women and their children, and its initiation in the first trimester is a major component. We investigated barriers and mo tivators for women receiving early versus late prenatal care. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 205 women who be gan prenatal care at the University of New Mexico Hospital Obstetrics Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The questionnaire assessed demograp hic information, insurance status, feelings about the pregnancy, healt h behaviors, and barriers and motivators to initiating prenatal care. The participants were Hispanic (41%) and non-Hispanic white (46%), low -income women with Medicaid (42%) or no health insurance (41%). They w ere divided into early (1st trimester 67%) and late (after 1st trimest er 33%) care groups. Results: Ethnicity, education, income, and age di d not predict initiation of prenatal care. Late initiators cited finan cial problems (26%), not being aware of the pregnancy (15%), and disli ke of going to doctors (14%) as reasons for the delay in seeking prena tal care. Over two-thirds of the pregnancies were unplanned, but 82 pe rcent of the women felt positive about the pregnancy. Conclusions: Our study documents the continuing need for public health efforts to enco urage women to seek early prenatal care. Specific attention should be directed toward women's perceived reasons for not initiating early car e.