Availability of Prenatal Care

Your editorial “Health: Danger Signal” (June 25) raised many of the issues we have been looking at in Orange County. Over the past four months an interdisciplinary group in Orange County called Professionals and Agencies for Prenatal Access has been meeting to assess the growing problem of access to prenatal care in the county.

In 1986, 2,312 women received late or no prenatal care in Orange County, representing an increase of 20% over the previous year and 40% over the past four years. Orange County from 1982 to 1984, with one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, ranked in the bottom 50% of the state in providing prenatal care.

A number of medical studies throughout the United States over the years have consistently demonstrated a significant correlation between inadequate prenatal care and low-birth-weight infants, increased infant mortality rates and an overall increase in short-term health costs to the community.

On Aug. 3, there will be a Public Forum on Prenatal care in Orange County at the Garden Grove Community Center. The public is invited to attend and become involved in creating solutions to this urgent and critical situation.

CYNTHIA SCHEINBERG

Chairman

Professionals and Agencies

for Prenatal Access