Schools and prenatal care.

School-based prenatal services may help keep pregnant young women in school, according to an analysis of data on students at Baltimore's alternative high school for pregnant and parenting teenagers. (1) Among 431 students who delivered in 1995-1997, those who had gone to the school's on-site clinic for prenatal services were absent from school 12 fewer days during the year of their pregnancy than were those who had gotten care elsewhere (60 vs. 72 days); dropout rates were 6% and 15%, respectively. However, these statistically significant differences were not sustained into the following school year, when absenteeism and dropout rates were high for both groups. In an analysis controlling for several socioeconomic and school-related variables, the odds of dropping out during the year of a pregnancy were significantly reduced among students who had received school-based prenatal services (odds ratio, 0.4). The researchers comment that "investing in comprehensive approaches that include [school-based health centers] may help low-income childbearing adolescents succeed," but that specialized services for teenagers who become pregnant may need to extend beyond the year in which they deliver.

(1.) Barnet B, Reduced school dropout rates among adolescent mothers receiving school-based prenatal care, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2004, 158(3):262-268.