ABSTRACT
One hundred and eleven women who delivered at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit during 1985 were interviewed two to five days postpartum, and their medical charts were examined for sociodemographic and medical factors. These women were all poor and most were black. Many women used family, friends, and professionals as sources of information about pregnancy, but women in the inadequate-care group depended more often on knowledge gained during previous pregnancies and less often on written information. Women in the inadequate-care group varied in their responses about the importance of prenatal care, but, in general, they valued prenatal care less than those in the other groups. The notion of providing quality prenatal care to all women as a basic health right is an ethical concept indicating that society places a high value on human life. The ethical issue centers around problems arising from differences in perceptions of the value of prenatal technology.
