Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, and Delivery of Mothers with Disabilities in Korea

The aim of this study was to investigate the whole picture regarding pregnancy, prenatal care, obstetrical complications, and delivery among disabled pregnant women in Korea. Using the data of National Health Insurance Corporation, we extracted the data of women who terminated pregnancy including delivery and abortion from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Pearson's chi-square test and Student-t test were conducted to examine the difference between disabled women and non-disabled women. Also, to define the factors affecting inadequate prenatal care, logistic regression was performed. The total number of pregnancy were 463,847; disabled women was 2,968 (0.6%) and 460,879 (99.4%) were by non-disabled women. Abortion rates (27.6%), Cesarean section rate (54.5%), and the rate of receiving inadequate prenatal care (17.0%), and the rate of being experienced at least one obstetrical complication (11.3%) among disabled women were higher than those among non-disabled women (P < 0.001). Beneficiaries of Medical Aid (OR, 2.21) (P < 0.001) and severe disabled women (OR, 1.46) (P = 0.002) were more likely to receive inadequate prenatal care. In conclusion, disabled women are more vulnerable in pregnancy, prenatal care and delivery. Therefore, the government and society should pay more attention to disabled pregnant women to ensure they have a safe pregnancy period up until the delivery. Graphical Abstract