INSUFFICIENT PRENATAL-CARE IN FINLAND AND BADEN-WURTTEMBERG - CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN AND INFANT OUTCOME

The amount of prenatal care and the relationship between insufficient prenatal care, mothers' characteristics and infant outcome were studie d in Finland and in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. The main sources of da ta were the Finnish Medical Birth Register (N=193,659) and the Perinat al Survey of Baden-Wurttemberg (N=307,152) in 1991-1993. Insufficient prenatal care was defined as no visits, 1 or 2 visits or late attendan ce. Most of the women - also those in the risk groups for low use of c are (foreigners, young mothers, grand multiparas, single mothers and w omen with a poor social status) - were using prenatal care extensively . The proportion of women having insufficient care was 3.4% in Finland and 8.1% in Baden-Wurttemberg, most of them being late attenders. Amo ng women with insufficient care, 39% in Finland and 55% in Baden-Wurtt emberg were from the risk groups identified. Foreign nationals contrib uted 10% of the women with insufficient care in Finland and 44% in Bad en-Wurttemberg. The group of women with insufficient prenatal care was heterogeneous and it could not be defined by using traditional risk f actors only. Infants of mothers with few prenatal visits had poorer ou tcomes, but the attributable proportion of insufficient prenatal care to infant outcome was small.