cy rates for black and Hispanic
             teenagers were more than twice the rate of Caucasian teens. The surprising
             difference narrowed for women in their 20s, and disappeared by age 35.
             These younger women, who are in high risk groups, were found to be among
             those who are most likely to become pregnant. Black women also have a
             higher contribution to the national pregnancy rates than non-Hispanic
             whites. Black women had an average of 4.5 pregnancies during their
             lifetimes, which were compared with 4.1 pregnancies for Hispanic women, and
             only 2.7 for non-Hispanic white women. (cdc.gov, online)
             According to Stout (1997) Low-income women are among those at risk for
             delivering low-birth-weight babies (see also Lia- Hoagberg et al., 1990;
             Miller, Magolis, Schwethelm, & Smith, 1989). These women tend to make use
             of less prenatal care programs, and perceive more social barriers to
             quality care. These women also often have less positive reinforcement for
             receiving care, have less access to care, and maintain less healthy
             lifestyles, even when assisted through direct intervention or education
             programs. (Henderson, 1994). As a result, low income, minority, and teen
             mothers the following three problems are often present in this target
             1. Low-income pregnant women are at risk for delivering low-birth-
             weight and preterm babies, which often leads to expensive
             2. An unhealthy maternal lifestyle increases the risk of delivering
             a low-birth weight or preterm baby.
             3. There exist socially constructed lifestyle barriers, and
             psychosocial beliefs that low-income women face in regarding
             receiving prenatal care (Stout, 1997)
             As can be seen from these statistics, those women who are more likely
             to experience a LBW pregnancy, teens, and minority women, are contributing
             more significantly to the overall pregnancy numbers. Therefor...