Peoria County fares above national standards, when it comes to women getting prenatal care early in their pregnancy. But there is much work to be done in preventing preterm births and pregnancies among teens aged 15-19.
Those are findings of the Peoria City-County Health Department’s report released this month.
The department's epidemiologist Monica Hendrickson says a closer look at the data shows disproportionately higher rates of both preterm births and teen pregnancy among black women.
Hendrickson says local healthcare providers and human service organizations should use the data to inform their decisions on the areas and issues to focus.
“So it’s done, not haphazardly so to speak, but with efforts that it’s evidence-based or theory-based, there is some science or understanding behind it,” Hendrickson said.
The report says in 2014, nearly one and ten births in Peoria County were preterm, or prior to 36 weeks of gestation.
The study also found disparities in how many women are seeking prenatal care early in their pregnancies. The report found, overall, Peoria scores higher than the CDC's 2020 national objective of 77.9 percent for women seeking prenatal care within the first trimester of pregnancy. But a breakdown of the data shows 70 percent of African American mothers received prenatal care within the first trimester, compared to 85 percent of white women. Those statistics increase further as you look at individual zip codes within the City of Peoria.
Hendrickson says, there's still an alarming number of women, mostly teenaged mothers, who delay prenatal care, sometimes not until they’re in the delivery room.
Hendrickson says between two and six percent of pregnant mothers from the City of Peoria received late or no prenatal care. And a lack of prenatal care puts a mother at risk for delivering preterm.
And she says that’s a community-wide problem.
“There is that aspect ‘not in my backyard, not me, not related directly to me.’ And I think it’s important to note, items such as pre-term birth, for example, for every infant that’s born pre-term it costs roughly $51,600 from a community standpoint for that child,” Hendrickson said.
The costs include the immediate medical attention required to help that child thrive, as well as services like early intervention and special education.
Hendrickson says the study will be presented to health care providers, human service agencies and medical students throughout the region.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also released a report this month that found teen pregnancies are down, and continue to fall, nationwide. But that’s not the case in Peoria County. The Health Department's study found women between the ages of 15 and 19 made up about 8% of pregnancies in the county.
Hendrickson says black teens are four times more likely than white to become pregnant.
Several local agencies, like The Children's Home and Peoria Rescue Mission, offer services for women seeking prenatal care, postnatal care, counseling or other support. The challenge, Hendrickson says, is getting that information to the people who would benefit from the services.
Key Findings:
- The percent of preterm deliveries for singleton births was 9.3% for Peoria County, Illinois in 2014, compared to 9.6% nationally and 10.1% in Illinois.
- Zip codes attached to the City of Peoria ranged from 7.0% to 12.4% preterm deliveries for singleton birth.
- African American/Black women had the highest percentage of preterm singleton deliveries than women of any other racial group.
- Preterm deliveries were highest among 15-24 year old women.
- In 2014, 80.0% of pregnant women received prenatal care during the first trimester and 3.3% received late or no prenatal care.
- Zip codes attached to the City of Peoria had 2.0% to 6.6% late or no prenatal care.
- African American/Black women with late or no prenatal care was 6.6% and 70.8% having care during the first trimester. This compared to White women who had 2.0% and 85.3% respectively.