Prenatal care and pregnancies complicated by diabetes--U.S. reporting areas, 1989.

Women who are pregnant and who have diabetes (either established [i.e., diabetes mellitus diagnosed before conception] or gestational [i.e., carbohydrate intolerance of variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy]) are at increased risk for adverse fetal and maternal outcomes (1,2). To reduce these risks, CDC, the American Diabetes Association, and other health-care professionals recommend that women who are of childbearing age and have diabetes undergo prepregnancy counseling and that all pregnant women receive early and continued prenatal care, including screening for gestational diabetes sometime during weeks 24-28 of pregnancy (3,4). Although appropriate prenatal-care practices, including screening for gestational diabetes, have been recommended by CDC and others, there is no system to routinely monitor national trends in prenatal practices among mothers with diabetes mellitus. This report summarizes an analysis of U.S. birth certificates in 1989 to characterize racial/ethnic differences in prenatal care for live births, including those among mothers whose pregnancies were complicated by diabetes.