Measuring the benefit of prenatal care in a less-developed country: semi-parametric estimates from Uruguay

This study extends extant research on prenatal care and birthweight to the South American country of Uruguay. The data represent a population of poor women from a less-developed country with a health care system that provides both prenatal and obstetric care free of charge. We find a positive effect of increased prenatal care use on birthweight, with a small marginal effect that is similar to that found in studies using US data. The results highlight the usefulness of existing methodologies for estimating the effect of prenatal care on birthweight and the importance of extending these methodologies to data from developing countries.