Maternal care, pregnancy complications and birth outcomes among native and migrant women in Portugal

Migrants can experience inequalities in care and health outcomes even in countries with universal access to care, regardless of legal status, as it is the case in Portugal. Thus, we assessed the prevalence of late antenatal care, pregnancy complications, obstetric interventions and birth outcomes considering the country of origin of women delivering in Portugal Methods: As part of an ongoing population-based study, enrolling native and foreign-born women recruited in 32 Portuguese public hospitals at delivery, 3884 women were classified in groups according to their country of origin and native country language as Portuguese (PT), Portuguese speaking Latin American Countries (BR), Portuguese speaking African countries (PALOP) and other countries (PNSC) Results: The prevalence (%) varies for late antenatal care (p<0.001), from 14.5 (PT) to 29.8 (PALOP); pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (p = 0.031), from 0.8 (BR) to 2.4 (PALOP); instrumental vaginal birth (p<0.001), from 8.6 (PALOP) to 18.1 (PNSC); C-section before labour (p<0.001), from 11.5 (PNSC) to 15.2 (BR); and C-section during labour (p