Objective: To examine personal costs (dollar costs and time spent) associated with prenatal care (PNC) attendance and outcomes (gestation length, PNC adequacy, and birth weight) for low-income, working women (N = 165).
Design: Prospective, descriptive study.
Setting: Participants were recruited from a pre-natal clinic located at an inner city tertiary care center.
Participants: A convenience sample of 165 low-income, working women.
Main outcome measures: Personal costs were measured as dollar costs and time spent associated with PNC attendance. Perinatal outcomes were measured as gestation length, PNC adequacy, and birth weight.
Results: Per visit, the mean cost associated with PNC was 33.31 dollars (range 1-125.60 dollars, SD = 32.33 dollars) and the time needed to attend care was 228 min (20-720, SD = 205). Women delivered at 37.8 (18-42) weeks; 17.6% of the women received inadequate PNC, and 17.0% of the women delivered low-birth-weight newborns.
Conclusions: The findings indicated that personal costs associated with PNC attendance were not associated with inadequate care attendance.