Maternal characteristics and type of prenatal care associated with peregrination before childbirth

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the maternal characteristics and type of prenatal care associated with peregrination before childbirth among pregnant women in a northeastern Brazilian state. METHODS: Quantitative and transversal study, with descriptive and analytical approaches, part of the Nascer em Sergipe research held between June 2015 and April 2016. A total of 768 puerperal women proportionally distributed across all maternities of the state (n = 11) were evaluated. Data were collected in interviews and from prenatal records. The associations between antepartum peregrination and the exposure variables were described in absolute and relative frequencies, crude and adjusted odds ratios and their respective confidence intervals. RESULTS: Antepartum peregrination was reported by 29.4% (n = 226) of the interviewees, most of whom sought care in a single service before the current one (87.6%; n = 198). It should be noted that antepartum peregrination was less frequent among women aged ≥ 20 years old (OR = 0.50; 95%CI 0.34–0.71), with high education level (OR = 0.42; 95%CI 0.31–0.59) and a paid job (adjusted OR = 0.59; 95%CI 0.41–0.82), who had been instructed during prenatal care about the referral maternity for childbirth (adjusted OR = 0.88; 95%CI 0.42–0.92), and who used the private service to receive prenatal (adjusted OR = 0.44; 95%CI 0.18–0.86) or childbirth (adjusted OR = 0.96; 95%CI 0.66–0.98) care. No statistical evidence of associations between gestational characteristics and the occurrence of peregrination was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Antepartum peregrination suffers interference from the mother’s socioeconomic characteristics, the type of prenatal care received and the source of funding for childbirth.