Barriers to prenatal care for homeless pregnant women

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the barriers to prenatal care for homeless pregnant women. Design: A descriptive survey with written questionnaires. Participants: About 183 pregnant homeless women live in Northeast Florida in any given month. More than 250 surveys were distributed to homeless pregnant women via agencies that provide shelter and/or services to homeless people in Northeast Florida. Forty-seven surveys were returned, representing 25.7% of the estimated population. Main Outcome Measure: Barriers to prenatal care were measured using Melnyk's Barriers Scale, a 27-item Likert-type scale. Results: Of the respondents, 75.61% perceived barriers to prenatal care. Site-related factors were the most significant, followed by provider/client relationship, inconvenience, fear, and cost. Conclusions: Although prenatal care is available to all pregnant women in Northeast Florida, barriers to accessing this care for homeless pregnant women are significant and need to be addressed by health care providers and administrators. Additional qualitative study of these issues is warranted.