Blacks Less Likely to Get Prenatal Care

African-American women living in urban communities are less likely to get adequate prenatal care during pregnancy than white women, a U.S. study found.

Howard University researchers interviewed 246 African-American women during their postpartum hospitalization in Washington in 1996 and 1997 and asked about prenatal care visits.

Sixty percent were considered to have inadequate use, said the study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Inadequate care was defined for the study as prenatal visits that started after the fourth month of pregnancy or if the woman made less than 50 percent of the visits.

The women with inadequate prenatal care described the main barriers to seeking better care as their ambivalent attitudes toward the pregnancy or toward prenatal care. For example, they believed they could go to the emergency room or ask a family member for help if there was a problem.

Research has shown that pregnant women who start prenatal care early and maintain them are more likely to have higher-birth-weight babies and fewer infant deaths.