Objective: To evaluate an enriched prenatal intervention program designed to reduce the risk of low birth weight.
Study setting: Freestanding community-based prenatal intervention project located in a poor inner-city community, serving mostly African American women.
Study design: All women less than 29 weeks pregnant were eligible to participate. They were compared to women who lived in neighborhoods with similar rates of poverty.
Data collection: The birth certificate was the source of data on maternal age, education, marital status, timing and frequency of prenatal care attendance, parity, gravidity, prior pregnancy terminations, fetal and child deaths, and birth weight.
Principal findings: Thirty-eight percent of the women who delivered live-born infants in the study area participated in the program. There were no differences in low- and very low birthweight rates in the study and comparison groups. In a secondary analysis comparing participants and nonparticipants in the study census tracts, participants were at higher risk for low and very low birth weight, and they adhered more closely to the schedule of prenatal visits than nonparticipants. Low- and very low birthweight rates were lower among participants than among nonparticipants and comparison women.
Conclusion: The Better Babies Project did not have an effect on the overall low- and very low birthweight rates in the study census tracts. This was probably due to the low participation rates and the high population mobility.