OBJECTIVES Despite very low rates of vertical transmission of HIV in the UK overall, rates are higher among women starting antenatal antiretroviral therapy (ART) late. We investigated the timing of key elements of the care of HIV-positive pregnant women [antenatal care booking, HIV laboratory assessment (CD4 count and HIV viral load) and antenatal ART initiation], to assess whether clinical pra...

BACKGROUND In Australia, there is limited evidence on the impact of antenatal depression on perinatal outcomes. This study investigates the association between maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and key perinatal outcomes, including birth weight, gestational age at birth, breastfeeding indicators and postnatal depressive symptoms. METHOD A retrospective cohort of mothers (N = 17,56...

Objective To determine whether exposure to any antenatal corticosteroids is associated with a lower rate of death at each gestational age at which administration is currently recommended.Design Prospective cohort study.Settings 300 participating neonatal intensive care units of the Pediatrix Medical Group in the United States.Participants 117 941 infants 23 0/7 to 34 6/7 weeks' gestational age ...

BACKGROUND Late antenatal care and smoking during pregnancy are two important factors that are amenable to intervention. Despite the adverse health impacts of smoking during pregnancy and the health benefits of early first antenatal visit on both the mother and the unborn child, substantial proportions of women still smoke during pregnancy or have their first antenatal visit after 10 weeks gest...

BACKGROUND Most pertinent studies of inadequate antenatal care concentrate on the risk profile of women booking late or not booking at all to antenatal care. The objective of this study was to assess the outcome of pregnancies when free and easily accessible antenatal care has been either totally lacking or low in number of visits. METHODS This is a hospital register based cohort study of pre...

BACKGROUND When examining risk factors for inadequate antenatal care, the assessment of antenatal care hardly considers the content and timing of interventions during pregnancy. This study aims to provide information about the importance of predisposing, enabling and pregnancy-related determinants on the received content and timing of antenatal care. METHODS In the Brussels Metropolitan Regio...

CONTEXT Current guidelines, initially published in 1995, recommend antenatal corticosteroids for mothers with preterm labor from 24 to 34 weeks' gestational age, but not before 24 weeks due to lack of data. However, many infants born before 24 weeks' gestation are provided intensive care. OBJECTIVE To determine if use of antenatal corticosteroids is associated with improvement in major outcom...

BACKGROUND Regular antenatal care for women with a multiple pregnancy is accepted practice, and while most women have an increase in the number of antenatal visits, there is no consensus as to what constitutes optimal care. 'Specialised' antenatal clinics have been advocated as a way of improving outcomes for women and their infants. OBJECTIVES To assess, using the best available evidence, th...

BACKGROUND This paper presents the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis infections among women attending antenatal clinics (ANC) in Tanzania obtained during the 2003/2004 ANC surveillance. METHODS Ten geographical regions; six of them were involved in a previous survey, while the remaining four were freshly selected on the basis of having the largest population among ...