Prenatal care and the prevention of preterm delivery

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Abstract
This paper reports the methods and results of an innovative program of prenatal care, designed to prevent preterm delivery in Clamart, France, during 1976-1981. Rates of preterm delivery among women who entered the prenatal care program early in pregnancy (and, thus, could derive full benefit of the program) were compared with those among 2 comparison groups: (1) women who entered the same program later in pregnancy; and (2) women who delivered in Paris. In the first comparison, women who entered the program early had significantly lower rates of preterm delivery than did women who entered later, even when stratified by various risk factors, and when high-risk women were eliminated altogether. In the second comparison, the early care group in Clamart did not exhibit the usual inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and rates of preterm delivery. The usual significant inverse relationship was found in the Clamart population as a whole, and in the Paris series.