Page 34 - IJPS-10-3

International Journal of
Population Studies Prenatal care in Santa Catarina, Brazil

We observed that women with higher education Our study was conducted at a public maternity hospital
had better prenatal care, according to the Kessner index in the southern region of Brazil, an area known for its higher
modified by Takeda (1993). Women with more than Human Development Index and better socioeconomic
12 years of study had a 33% higher prevalence of adequacy, conditions. Therefore, characterizing the quality of prenatal
corroborating with other studies (Moron-Duarte et al., care in a hospital in the metropolitan region of the state’s
2021; Oliveira & Cavalcanti Filho, 2021; Tadesse, 2020). capital may not necessarily depict the broader Brazilian
Women with formal education have greater access to health- reality. Instead, it can shed light on whether the reduction
care services, have greater knowledge of health assistance, in maternal mortality observed in the southern region of
are able to identify gestational risks, and understand that Brazil was accompanied by improvements in local prenatal
worse outcomes result from poor adherence to prenatal care, as seen in the state capital.
care (Moron-Duarte et al., 2021; Oliveira & Cavalcanti Based on the results presented, the following
Filho, 2021; Tadesse, 2020). recommendations are proposed: (i) Continued education
Contrary to expectations based on previous research, of health professionals who assist pregnant women, since
skin color was not associated with the quality of prenatal requests differ from those recommended by the municipality;
care. Non-white individuals are often associated with (ii) lack of compliance with certain procedures and failures
lower-quality prenatal care and higher maternal mortality in following the guidelines have been observed. Health-care
rates (Martin et al., 2022; Mario et al., 2019). In our sample, teams should add a script to the pregnant woman’s booklets
over half of the women were white, a more common to systematically verify compliance with the minimum
characteristic in the southern region of Brazil, which recommendations; (iii) emphasize studies that scrutinize
may partly explain the lack of differences in this regard, the difficulties encountered by the health system users to
in addition to indicating that in this region, there are no investigate the perception of the users themselves regarding
discrepancies in health-care assistance for women enrolled the quality of the PN; and (iv) the adoption of normative
with SUS, regardless of skin color. criteria and single indexes would allow a broad, complete,
and comparative analysis of the prenatal care offered in this
There are concerns about the quality of prenatal country.
care being compromised due to unsatisfactory use of
the maternity booklet by health-care professionals and 5. Conclusion
whether some actions are complied with but without
proper registration. Incomplete entries may be related to The adequacy of prenatal care ranged from 48.5% to 83.1%,
the overload of pregnant women’s care services, whether according to the specific normative criteria applied, with
in primary health units or in high-risk units (Camargo factors such as older maternal age and education, referral to
et al., 2021). According to the WHO, incomplete records HRPN, and pregnancy planning associated with adequacy
may also result from the lack of professional training or rates. A significant majority of women, over 75%, adhered to
pregnant women failing to bring their booklets or abide by the MoH’s basic recommendations regarding the number of
the information contained within (WHO, 2018). This fact prenatal visits and timely initiation of prenatal care. Notably,
hampers the communication of the health professionals the adequacy rate decreased with the implementation of more
rigorous assessment criteria and as the pregnancy advanced.
in their follow-up of pregnant women and prevents a
correct approach to the health care of those women. The Acknowledgments
importance of continuing health education is emphasized,
duly considering the difficulties pointed out by health-care Not applicable.
professionals and defining new strategies to improve their
skills (Camargo et al., 2021; Rodrigues et al., 2020). Funding
The authors Eliane Silva de Azevedo Traebert and Betine
As for the limitations of our study, we emphasize that
data collection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinto Moehlecke Iser received a research grant from
and the results verified, especially for the third trimester Anima Institute (Grand no.: 12/2021).
of pregnancy, may have been affected by the restrictions Conflict of interest
imposed at that specific time. Women who delivered in
a public maternity hospital and who came from just one The authors declare that they have no competing interest.
municipality were assessed, thus not necessarily reflecting
the reality of all puerperal women assisted at the service. In Author contributions
addition, the data were evaluated across time, largely using Conceptualization: Vanessa Martins Rosa, Betine Pinto
secondary data. Moehlecke Iser

Volume 10 Issue 3 (2024) 28 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1422