Maternal demographic, situational and psychosocial factors and their relationship to enrollment in prenatal care: a review of the literature.

Whether or not a woman enrolls in prenatal care in a timely fashion is a major predictor of pregnancy outcome. In this review, we consider maternal demographic, situational and psychosocial factors which have been studied with relation to enrollment in prenatal care. Paying increased attention to some situational barriers such as problems with child care or transportation, and a number of psychosocial factors such as unplanned pregnancy and negative feelings about medical care, holds promise in achieving improved utilization of prenatal care.

Seeking safe passage: utilizing health care during pregnancy.

This grounded theory study was conducted to explore how women utilize health care during pregnancy. The 27 women who were interviewed had sought prenatal care early, late or not at all. Transcriptions from the interviews were subjected to constant comparative analysis. The major concern of the women was seeking safe passage through pregnancy and childbirth. Processes used to achieve safe passage were searching for care, consulting, transferring, waiting, contingency planning and self-care. Discussed in this paper is the role that choice plays in utilizing care and transferring some elements of prenatal care to women to manage themselves.

Adolescent mothers' successful participation in a well-baby care program.

Previous research suggests that adolescent mothers and their infants may benefit from participation in specialized well-baby care programs. Yet the literature has not addressed the issue of predictive factors related to continued program participation. In a retrospective study, stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to explore this issue in 61 mothers from one well-baby program. The results were partially cross-validated using 59 other mothers. Mothers ranged in age from 13 to 17 years. Most were Black, single, and receiving public assistance. Twenty-two percent of the variance in the number of routine clinic visits made and 34% of the variance in the number of visits made for specific health problems were accounted for by the predictive equations. Cross-validation supported these results, with the most significant predictive variable for both measures of program participation being inconsistent appointment keeping.

Relationships among intravaginal pressure, orgasmic function, parity factors, and urinary leakage.

Women's ability to contract pelvic musculature voluntarily was related to reports of ability to have orgasm, parity, and urinary leakage problems. Data collected from 92 women presenting for routine pelvic examinations provided no evidence of a general relationship between strength of voluntary pelvic muscle contractions and orgasmic function. There were negative relationships between strength of voluntary pelvic muscle contractions and parity, weight of the largest baby, and a woman's age.

Intravaginal pressure assessed by the Kegel perineometer.

A first attempt was made to provide norms for intravaginal pressure in normal women measured by the Kegel perineometer. Data obtained from 78 white females and 64 black females indicate that resting pressure approximates 5 mm Hg and pressure with appropriate pelvic musculature contracted reaches an average of 15 mm Hg. The difference between resting and contracted pressures is unrelated to the former. There is a moderate negative correlation between number of vaginal births and contracted pressure in the white sample.