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Committee on Maternal, Adolescent, and Child Health

Council on Scientific Affairs

JAMA. 1981;245(11):1159-1160.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

HIGH-QUALITY obstetric care from early in pregnancy through the sixweek postpartum period has long been a tenet of Western medicine. Recent statistics show that about 75% of the approximately 3 1/2 million women giving birth each year in the United States begin prenatal care within the first three months of pregnancy.¹ These women have made a good start at achieving a healthy outcome of their pregnancy. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, about one fourth of our new mothers do not have this kind of advantage, and 1% to 2% of new mothers give birth with no prenatal care.¹ Deterrents and obstacles to receiving high-quality obstetric care may be (1) situational or economic or (2) attitudinal.

1. Situational or Economic Deterrents:
   
   • Insufficient funds for public or private services or transportation to such services;
     
   • Ineligibility for public services;
     
   • Language difficulties; and
     
   • Inefficient or inadequate services.
     
   
   

Author Affiliations
From the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association, Chicago.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association, 535 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60610 (Richard J. Jones, MD).

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