Why is this important?
The health care our babies receive, before
and after birth influences the subsequent state of
their health. Therefore, measuring the health of a community
is intimately connected with the health of
pregnant women and the practices employed during
this important period.
What is the measure?
Early and regular visits to a health care
provider during pregnancy have been shown to improve pregnancy outcomes. Data are collected
at the time of delivery to determine when prenatal care
began and how frequently mothers visited health care
providers during pregnancy.
Appropriate use of infant and child safety
seats can be used to gauge adherence to accident
prevention recommendations for infants and children.
How are we doing?
Little change occurred in either the time
when
local mothers first see a health care provider
during
pregnancy, or in the frequency of prenatal
visits
received during pregnancy. The recent Tuolumne
County rates for these indicators paralleled
the
average rate throughout California. Slightly
over
three fourths of local pregnant women received
the
recommended number of prenatal visits.
More than 90% of Tuolumne County mothers
planned to breast-feed their babies at the time
of hospital discharge, compared to an average of 86%
throughout California. However, as seen in the state
data, local breastfeeding diminished rapidly over the
first few months of infancy to less than 30% after
four months.
Birth rates to adolescent mothers 15 to
19 years of age in Tuolumne County are similar to rates
throughout California for a similar demographic population,
at 22 per 1,000 adolescents.
Although infant and child car seats requirements
are more stringent in recent years, appropriate
use of these improved.
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