A review of problems of universal access to prenatal care.

Despite the preponderance of evidence that points to the advantages of prenatal care, the number of women who receive adequate prenatal care has remained at a plateau or actually decreased since 1980. Over the past decades, many demographic and structural barriers to receiving prenatal care have been identified; financial obstacles have been cited as the major barrier. The assumption has generally been made that if financial barriers to prenatal care were removed, problems with access to prenatal care would be solved. Recent appreciation of the significance of nonfinancial barriers to prenatal care has resulted in recognition that even if all financial barriers were removed, there would still be access problems.