Factors associated with not receiving adequate prenatal care in an urban black population: program planning implications.

REcords of 36,608 Black single live births and 762 infant deaths in Washington, D.C., from 1980 to 1985 were analyzed. Bivariate and multivariate contingency table analysis were carried out to identify the groups at high risk for not obtaining adequate prenatal care. Results show that the groups of mothers which are less likely to receive adequate care also have a high risk of delivering low birthweight infants even when they receive adequate care. The paper focuses on women with high gravidity and short birth intervals for in-depth analysis of programming needs.