Factors Associated With First-Trimester Prenatal Care Initiation In The United States: A Scoping Review

First-trimester prenatal care is an important component of quality care during pregnancy and is associated with improved perinatal outcomes. Despite its importance, many pregnant people delay prenatal care initiation or receive no prenatal care. This scoping review assessed multilevel factors associated with first-trimester prenatal care initiation in the United States among studies that included a measure of prenatal care timing, using the socioecological model as an organizing framework.

A scoping review was conducted according to the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews guidelines for reporting. PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, CINAHL, and Social Sciences Abstracts were searched for peer-reviewed papers that focused on facilitators and barriers associated with first-trimester prenatal care initiation, were written in English, included a measure of prenatal care timing, and used data gathered after 2014.

Of the 1469 articles identified in the search, 19 met inclusion criteria and were included in the final review. Articles described intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental-level barriers and facilitators of first-trimester prenatal care initiation including Medicaid expansion, immigration status, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Significant heterogeneity in the measurement of prenatal care timing existed across studies.

Our findings suggest that, although environmental domain factors have been impactful toward increasing population-level rates of first-trimester prenatal care initiation, benefits have not been equitable across sociodemographic factors. Increasing the proportion of pregnant people who initiate first-trimester prenatal care will require comprehensive efforts that address sociodemographic and contextual factors, including persistent structural and systemic barriers that cause and widen health disparities.