Latina immigrants living in the United States face many challenges when trying to access prenatal care, including lack of insurance, lack of citizenship, language barriers, and financial limitations. There has been little research conducted on prenatal care for Latinas from the clinical perspective. Bridging this research gap has the potential to significantly improve quality of care. Prenatal care providers in Allegheny County, PA, were interviewed on various topics regarding care for their Latina patients, focusing on challenges, protective factors, and opportunities for improvement. Providers included obstetrician/gynecologists, family medicine physicians, nurses and doulas. An interview guide was developed based on existing literature on prenatal care for Latinas and quality measurement theory, including Donabedians theoretical framework. Language, citizenship issues, lack of health insurance, and financial burdens were some of the primary barriers identified by the providers also specified in the literature. Inadequate domestic violence and family planning resources were among the interview responses that were not emphasized in the literature. Recommendations included the expansion of state sponsored health insurance to all women during pregnancy, increasing the number of Spanish-speaking prenatal care providers, and improvements to informed consent procedures in the hospital system. In terms of public health significance, this research is directly related to several Healthy People 2010 goals, including increasing the number of women who receive adequate prenatal care and improving infant mortality rates.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04082009-142528 |
| Date | 29 June 2009 |
| Creators | Walker, Lindsay Anne |
| Contributors | Patricia I. Documét, MD, DrPH, Eleanor Feingold, PhD, Martha Ann Terry, BA, MA, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04082009-142528/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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