Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : County’s Prenatal Program Assailed

Orange County’s record on infant mortality may be improving, but local medical institutions still lag far behind those in other California counties in offering adequate prenatal care, according to an independent statewide study of infant health.

The county’s overburdened prenatal clinics turned away 2,000 indigent patients in 1985. While half of those pregnant women were able to find care elsewhere, the remaining 1,000 received no medical attention before giving birth, according to the study by the Southern California Child Health Network and the Children’s Research Institute of California.

The study by the two nonprofit agencies, which was released last Monday, ranked Orange County 23rd among 38 counties in providing medical attention to pregnant women in 1984.

The study said that 8.2% of pregnant women in Orange County received late or no prenatal care that year, compared to an average of 7.2% in the years 1982 and 1983. The statewide average for inadequate prenatal care in 1984 was 7.1%.

“What is clear is that there is an increasing number of families who are uninsured and are turning to county services that are overloaded,” said Wenday Lazarus, director of the health network.