Pregnant Black Women and Emergency Department Utilization: Assessing Self-Reported Receipt of Prenatal Counseling

Abstract

There is limited literature on emergency department (ED) use among pregnant women. In this article, we examined the associations between prenatal counseling with the use of the ED during pregnancy. In our cohort of Black women in the Metro Detroit area, we found that approximately 70.5% of the women had an ED visit at some point during pregnancy. In unadjusted models of prevalence ratios, we found women reporting receipt of prenatal counseling regarding fetal movement, what to do about baby’s movement slowing down, and smoking (but not what to do about smoking) were at statistically significantly greater risk of ED utilization during pregnancy. Adjustment for confounders slightly weakened the associations for counseling about baby’s movement or smoking, so that the associations were no longer statistically significant. These findings call for further research on ED utilization among this population, especially differentiating urgent versus non-urgent use of the ED during pregnancy.