Factors Influencing Prenatal Care among Low-income Jamaican Women

Government health policy in Jamaica encourages prenatal care from the first trimester of pregnancy; however, low-income women continue to obtain prenatal care late in pregnancy, if at all. This research analyzed prevailing patterns of prenatal care in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. Women attending prenatal clinics and postpartum patients at the primary maternity hospital in Kingston, as well as pregnant women in two low-income neighborhoods in the Kingston environs, were interviewed to determine factors influencing their use of prenatal care services. Women were aware that prenatal care was necessary; but for many women, an occasional visit served as sufficient assessment. Neither financial constraints nor an unpopular blood donation requirement constrained women from seeking early prenatal care; in the absence of alternative low cost maternity care options, the widespread dissatisfaction with conditions at the public maternity hospital did not affect women's use of hospital prenatal or delivery services. Contrary to expectations, multiparous women had more prenatal visits than did primiparas. The cultural construction of pregnancy as life cycle event rather than pathological condition may account for expressed indifference to medical surveillance during pregnancy.