Network care: relationship between prenatal care adequacy and hospital obstetric care in a cross-sectional study (*)

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between prenatal care adequacy and the demand for hospital obstetric care. METHOD: A cross-sectional, quantitative study, conducted in a Brazilian capital, at six basic units and a hospital unit, from 2017 to 2020. Pregnant women who met the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria participated in the study. Data were collected by structured questionnaire, and follow-up of participants was in person, by phone and by application. Descriptive and analytical statistics were performed using a statistical program. RESULTS: A total of 224 women were investigated. Prenatal care was adequate in 42.4% of cases, and the mean percentage of adequacy was 76.7% of assessed indicators. Of the 1,067 hospital visits, 63.1% were inopportune. The regression model showed that the variable “prenatal care adequacy” was statistically relevant (0.043), with a 2.2 times higher Odds Ratio (OR) of women who had inadequate prenatal follow-up seeking the hospital inanely. CONCLUSION: Prenatal care inadequacy was related to the inopportune search for emergency room care, with care overload for this point in the care network.