Effect of comprehensive care on pregnancy outcomes

The purpose of the study was to compare pregnancy outcomes of low socioeconomic pregnant women receiving prenatal care at a prototype, comprehensive, multidisciplinary tertiary clinic with outcomes of a matched sample who received prenatal care from a variety of area public health clinics. Multidisciplinary clinic subjects were matched by age, race, and parity to 175 control subjects selected from labor and delivery logs of the general hospital that services the entire community. There were significant differences between groups on the measures of gestational age (t[174] = 2.50, p < .01), maternal risk factors (t[174] = 11.12, p < .0), and infant complications (t[174] = 5.86, p < .01). Infant birthweight and APGAR scores were not significantly different between the multidisciplinary clinic subjects and the matched sample. This study showed the importance of comprehensive prenatal care for low socioeconomic women at high risk for obstetrical and medical complications.