title: Intersections of ethnicity and social class in provider advice regarding reproductive health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined how ethnicity and social class influence women's perceptions of reproductive health care. Of primary interest was assessing whether health care providers are perceived as advising low-income women, particularly women of color, to limit their childbearing and to what extent they feel they are discouraged by providers from having future children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnically diverse, low-income (n=193) and middle-class women (n=146) completed a questionnaire about their pregnancy-related health care experiences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Logistic regression analyses revealed that low-income women of color experienced greater odds of being advised to limit their childbearing than did middle-class White women. A separate model demonstrated that low-income Latinas reported greater odds of being discouraged from having children than did middle-class White women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Low-income women of color were more likely to report being advised to limit their childbearing and were more likely to describe being discouraged from having children than were middle-class White women. More research is needed regarding how ethnicity and social class impact women's experiences with reproductive health care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md, USA. robertadowning@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Roberta A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Downing
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: LaVeist
authors.forename: Heather E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Bullock
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016015:Logistic Models; D015141:Los Angeles; D011203:Poverty; D034121:Reproductive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires