Pattern of prenatal care and infant immunization status in a comprehensive adolescent-oriented maternity program

Area of Science:

• Maternal and Child Health
• Preventive Healthcare Utilization
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Understanding the link between prenatal care and infant preventive health is crucial for optimizing child well-being.
• Adolescent mothers often face unique challenges in accessing and utilizing healthcare services.
• Previous research suggests a correlation between maternal health behaviors and infant health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between prenatal care utilization patterns and subsequent infant preventive healthcare utilization.
• To identify specific factors within prenatal care that predict incomplete infant immunization status.
• To inform targeted interventions for improving preventive health services for infants of adolescent mothers.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of medical records for 150 adolescent mothers and their infants.
• Data collection on prenatal care, postnatal preventive health services, and maternal characteristics.
• Logistic regression analysis to identify predictors of incomplete infant immunizations at 8 months.

Main Results:

• 14.7% of infants (22 out of 150) were incompletely immunized at 8 months.
• Late initiation of prenatal care (third trimester), inadequate family support, and Black race were significant predictors of incomplete immunization.
• Mothers of incompletely immunized infants were more likely to have fewer prenatal visits and later postpartum care initiation.

Conclusions:

• The timing of the first prenatal visit is a key indicator for identifying infants at risk of incomplete primary immunization.
• Adolescent mothers initiating prenatal care in the third trimester represent a high-risk group for incomplete infant immunizations.
• Findings support prioritizing outreach services for infants born to adolescent mothers with delayed prenatal care entry.