Heaman - quality of prenatal care

There was some attention given to the structure of care and how it’s offered so that you know that appointments would be accessible, the wait times wouldn’t be long, those types of things. But ultimately those are not as important as both the clinical processes of care and the interpersonal processes of care.  So a lot of attention was placed on interpersonal processes of care; that the provider was respectful and caring; that there was continuity of care with the provider; that there was information provided during the visits; that women were informed about the reasons for tests they were getting and then told the results clearly in a way they could understand. Another important aspect of quality of care was women-centered care or providing individualized care to meet the needs of the woman.  So there was many different aspects of care that we found that were important; taking time and not being rushed in the visits; monitoring the baby carefully and providing explanations and anticipatory guidance about things like breastfeeding, use of alcohol or smoking in pregnancy, good nutrition.  All those things were viewed as important components of quality of care.