The utilization of antenatal services in remote Manitoba First Nations communities

The purpose of this study was to describe the utilization of antenatal services by First Nations women in four northern Manitoba communities between January, 1996 and December 1996, and to explore possible relationships between the women's behaviors and antenatal clinic attendance. This study indicated that First Nations women received an optimal level of antenatal service. On average, the women first came to the nursing station in the ninth week of pregnancy and saw the health care provider generally a nurse, ten times for routine visits before maternal evacuation. A minority of women, however, had fewer than five visits. The frequency of routine antenatal clinic attendance was explained by the linear multiple regression model. A higher number of past pregnancies was associated with a decrease in the number of routine antenatal visits, while the number of pregnancy losses predicted the number of visits, after other variables had been taken into account. Married marital status was a positive predictor for the early initiation of care, after past pregnancies and risk score have been taken into account.