<b>Prenatal Care and the Postpartum Functioning of Birthing Parents in the US: An Evaluation of Prenatal Care Type, Trust in Providers, and Postpartum Functioning as a Construct</b>

<p dir="ltr">Prenatal care provides a ripe opportunity for the promotion of postpartum functioning through its group format of CenteringPregnancy (Rising, 1998) and the perceived trust birthing parents have in their providers (Berry et al., 2021). However, the construct of postpartum functioning lacks a robust and valid measurement tool (Trevethan, 2022) and has not been studied in relation to antecedent prenatal care experiences. The current study leverages a longitudinal dataset of birthing parents (N = 358) from prenatal to 6-months postpartum who were majority White (82%), married (91%), and college educated (92%). Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 4-factor structure of postpartum functioning (i.e., Parental Competence, Mental State, Self-Care, Social Support). A mediated structural equation path analysis resulted in no significant associations between CenteringPregnancy, trust in providers, and 6-month postpartum functioning. However, there was a significant association between trust in prenatal care providers and factor scores of the social support (β = 0.19, p = .035) domain of postpartum functioning. Additionally, age predicted self-care (β = -0.21, p = .028), maternal self-efficacy at 6-weeks postpartum predicted parental competence (β = 0.30, p < .001), and depression at 6-weeks postpartum predicted mental state (β = -0.32, p = .002), self-care (β = -0.21, p = .015), and social support (β = -0.27, p = .030). These were important contributions to the field as good measurement of postpartum functioning can help inform both prenatal and postpartum care practices and policies (e.g., multi-domain screening measures, continuity of care).</p>