The effect of family planning participation on prenatal care use and low birth weight.

Data on approximately 45,000 North Carolina women who gave birth in 1989 and 1990 and received prenatal care in public health facilities were studied to assess the effects in a low-income population of prior family planning services on low birth weight and adequacy of prenatal care. Women who had used family planning services in the two years before conception were significantly more likely than those who had not used such services to have a birth-to-conception interval of greater than six months. They were also more likely to receive early and adequate prenatal care and to be involved in a food supplement program and maternity care coordination. In addition, the family planning participants were less likely than the nonparticipants to be younger than 18 and were somewhat less likely to deliver a low-birth-weight infant. Though the results of this retrospective study must be interpreted with caution because of such factors as self-selection into family planning programs, they suggest that family planning services may improve birth weight and use of prenatal health services among low-income women.