Antenatal care coverage in great urban centers in Brazil

The antenatal care is used as an indicator of quality in clinical care and public health.The delivery system must be ensure that every pregnant woman has accessibility and adequacy of care, witch depends on the detailed knowledge of the conditions of life of the population-target in relation to the epidemiologic and sanitary aspects, as to the socioeconomic. In recent years, the covering of this care has grown in Brazil.The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of not attend antenatal care in great urban centers and to identify some associates factors. A cross-sectional study of 3939 women who had son in last the two years, living in areas covered by basic health centers in 41 cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants of seven states of Brazil.Reproductive, demographic and social factors had been investigated.The prevalence of not attend antenatal was of 2.5 % (IC 95%; 2.0 – 2.9). After adjusting the woman who not attend antenatal care tend to have lower socioeconomic status ABEP (D, RP 5.4, IC 95% 1.7 – 17.4 and E, RP 8.9, IC 95% 2.9 – 27.2), to be less educated, RP 2,3 (IC 95% 1,0 - 5,4) and to have high parity, RP 2.6 (IC 95% 1.4 – 4.8).Those women that had not carried through antenatal care had presented greater prevalence of not use of method of familiar planning at the moment of the interview and of unfamiliarity of the Papanicolaou smear. Although the raised covering of prenatal found in the study the women who had not attend antenatal care if had differentiated of excessively for will present worse social pointers and of cares of health.Soon, through a focused and gradual action it seems possible to strengthen the equity of the prenatal one, exactly in a context of chronic difficulties.