Content of Prenatal Care and Spontaneous Preterm Birth

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between selected components of the content of prenatal care and spontaneous preterm birth, based on analyses of the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) conducted by the National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS, USA). Spontaneous preterm birth was subcategorized into very preterm and moderately preterm births, with term birth as the controls. This study concluded that there were differences in selected components of the content of prenatal care between the cases and controls, overall and stratified by ethnicity, but they were confounded with missing values and associated preterm delivery bias. There were differences in selected components of the content of prenatal care between Anglo- and African-American cases, but they were difficult to interpret definitively due to item non-response and preterm delivery bias. In addition, no significant predictive association between selected components of the content of prenatal care and spontaneous preterm birth was found. However, inadequate/intermediate prenatal care and birth out of wedlock were found to be associated with moderately preterm birth.