The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to explore factors that influence the timing of the first prenatal care visit of pregnant adolescents. Although researchers agree that barriers to prenatal care need to be identified and interventions formulated, barriers have not been well defined for any specific population. Increased availability and adequacy of health care resources, more family system support, and higher self-care agency scores are hypothesized to predict earlier prenatal care. A convenience sample of 51 pregnant adolescents from a university clinic was surveyed. The study found that the availability/adequacy of health care resources was the most significant predictor of the initiation of prenatal care (p = .03). Of the various health care resources assessed, only the ease in attaining a medical card was positively related to the onset of prenatal care. Practitioners can be instrumental in disseminating information about the availability of health care resources and in easing access to those resources through local and national political involvement.In order to identify the factors that influence the gestational age when pregnant adolescents seek prenatal care, data were gathered from a convenience sample of 51 pregnant adolescents who were younger than 18, nullipara, received a government-sponsored medical card, and could read at the sixth-grade level or higher. Availability and adequacy of resources and the family support system were assessed using a modified version of Slusher's conditioning factor data collection tool, and self-care agency was measured using the Denyes Self-Care Agency Instrument. Sociodemographic data were also collected, and gestational age at initial prenatal screening was based on calculations of the estimated date of delivery. In the analysis of structural and nonstructural barriers to initiation of prenatal care, the only significance found was associated with the structural barriers of availability and adequacy of health care resources (the ease of attaining a medical card). The perceived difficulty of dealing with the medical-card system, rather than actual unavailability of funding, created the barrier to seeking care. There was no support for the hypotheses that increased family support or higher self-care agency would be associated with earlier onset of care. An interesting, but not statistically significant, association showed that the subsample with the lowest reported family support and health care resources (the Black adolescents) had the highest self-care scores and earliest prenatal care initiation. It is concluded that additional research is needed on the actual and perceived barriers to prenatal care faced by adolescents and that health care providers can play a role in improving the current Medicaid system.