title: Prenatal care needs, availability, accessibility, use, and satisfaction: a comparison of military women within and outside the continental United States.
abstract: This article presents the results of a survey distributed to military women within and outside the continental United States (CONUS and OCONUS) who had received prenatal care and delivered at one of six Army, Navy, or Air Force military facilities. This comparative descriptive study was undertaken to determine from the mothers' perspective (1) their needs, availability, accessibility, use, satisfaction, and preferences for prenatal care services, and (2) if prenatal care and birth outcomes were significantly different for CONUS versus OCONUS women. Both groups reported a high degree of satisfaction with services, clinics/offices, and health care staff. Significant group differences were reported in transportation, length of travel time, and cost of traveling, with the CONUS group reporting greater problems with each. For both groups, quality and consistency of health care were the two most important factors in their preference of provider. More than 20% of the mothers reported receiving no information on some of the common concerns of pregnancy. There were no significant group differences with regard to infant birth weight or length of hospital stay.
authors.affiliation: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Graduate School of Nursing, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Sylvia
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McMullen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gagnon
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Malavakis
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmelz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Runzel
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wootten
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology