Homelessness in Year Before Delivery Linked To Reduced Levels of Prenatal and Postnatal Care

Abstract

Presents a study which aims to examine the prevalence and outcomes of births to homeless women who had delivered 2–4 months earlier. Overall, 4% of Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) respondents had been homeless in the 12 months before the birth of their infant. Homeless women were less likely than nonhomeless women to have health insurance and to have taken vitamins during the preconception period, and more likely to have been underweight before pregnancy, to have had class III obesity before pregnancy and to have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in the past two years. In general, maternal and infant health outcomes were less positive among homeless women than among other respondents. While 78% of nonhomeless women had had a prenatal visit during their first trimester, only 57% of homeless women had had one, in the 2–4 months after delivery, 95% of nonhomeless women, but only 88% of homeless women, had obtained a well-baby checkup for their infant. In multiple regression analyses, homeless women had higher odds than other women of not having had a prenatal visit in the first trimester, not having had at least one well baby checkup and not having initiated breast-feeding after delivery. They were less likely than other women to have had an infant who did not require a stay in the intensive care unit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)