Does the quality of prenatal care matter in promoting skilled institutional delivery? A study in rural Mexico.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if the quality of prenatal care predicts skilled institutional delivery, a primary means of reducing maternal mortality.


METHODS
The probability of skilled institutional delivery is predicted among 4173 rural low-income women of reproductive age in seven Mexican states, as a function of maternal retrospective reports about prenatal care services received in 1997-2003.


RESULTS
Women who received most prenatal care procedures were more likely to have a skilled institutional delivery (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.18, 4.44). Women who received less than the 75th percentile of prenatal care procedures were not significantly different from those who received no prenatal care.


CONCLUSIONS
Policies promoting increased access to prenatal services should be linked to the promotion of practice standards to impact health and behavioral outcomes.
Barber
Sarah
S
Institute of Business and Economic Research, F502 Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley 94720-1922, USA. barber@haas.berkeley.edu
D000328:Adult; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008800:Mexico; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors