[The effect of postpartum visits on encouraging involvement in mother-child programs]

The influence of postpartum home visits on attraction of new mothers to maternal and child health programs was evaluated through a retrospective cohort study in the health centers of Cartuja and Almanjayar in Andalucia Spain. The sample included 153 of the 166 women who received prenatal care at the centers and who gave birth in 1989. 106 postpartum visits were made (69.3%). No significant differences were found between women receiving or not receiving the visit in age ethnic group educational level or number of previous children. Coverage of postpartum visits increased for women with 6 or more prenatal visits. Women receiving postpartum visits were more likely to attend the well child clinics family planning and metabolism testing services with greater frequency and to breast feed longer but the difference were statistically significant only for family planning. There were no statistically significant differences in coverage of the different programs according to whether the postpartum visit was made within the 1st 15 postpartum days or later. No significant differences were observed in attracting mothers to the different activities according to age or gypsy or nongypsy ethnic group but attendance at family planning clinics increased with maternal educational level and attendance at both family planning and well child clinics increased with the number of prenatal visits. 39.4% of women attending 5 or fewer prenatal appointments but 68.1% of those with 6 or more appointments accepted family planning services. 63.6% of infants whose mothers had 5 or fewer prenatal visits vs. 88.7% with 6 or more attended well child services. The number of previous children was related only to attendance at well child clinics with 81.9% of infants whose mothers had fewer than 4 other children but only 35.7% of whose mothers had 4 or more children attending well child clinics. Vaccination coverage was not found to be related to any other study variable.