title: A comparison of unbooked mothers delivering at Port Moresby General Hospital with mothers seen antenatally: socioeconomic and reproductive characteristics.
abstract: It is well known that antenatal care improves perinatal and maternal outcomes. This is especially true for deprived communities and for the developing world, where women commonly have risk factors. At the Port Moresby General Hospital mothers who did not attend an antenatal clinic in the index pregnancy (unbooked mothers) form about 6% of all mothers delivered. These unbooked mothers have a perinatal death rate which is four times that of those who attended antenatal clinics before their delivery. A case-control survey was conducted of 136 unbooked mothers delivered at the Port Moresby General Hospital and 136 parity-matched control mothers who had been seen antenatally at least three times during their pregnancy. The purpose of the study was to find out if the cases and controls differed in their socioeconomic characteristics and in some selected aspects of their reproductive history. There was no significant difference between the groups in the following: marital status, and distance between present residence and nearest antenatal clinic. The groups were very significantly different in the following characteristics: age less than 20 years, social class, husband's education, and previous antenatal attendance in the penultimate pregnancy. The difference in patient's education was only just significant.
authors.affiliation: Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Papua New Guinea.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Klufio
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kariwiga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D010219:Papua New Guinea; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors