BACKGROUND Antenatal care is widely established and provides an opportunity to inform and educate pregnant women about pregnancy, childbirth and care of the newborn. It is expected that this would assist the women in making choices that would contribute to good pregnancy outcome. We examined the provision of information and education in antenatal clinics from the perspective of pregnant women a...

Despite critics of the ‘opt-out’ policy surrounding HIV testing during antenatal care visits in Uganda suggesting that women may be deterred from seeking antenatal care at facilities with on-site testing, empirical evidence suggests the acceptability of HIV testing during antenatal care has been significantly increasing over the last decade. Furthermore, there is a disconnect between high rates...

OBJECTIVE to describe the experiences of women who were participants in the Australian CenteringPregnancy Pilot Study. CenteringPregnancy is an innovative model of care where antenatal care is provided in a group environment. The aim of the pilot study was to determine whether it would be feasible to implement this model of care in Australia. DESIGN a descriptive study was conducted. Data inc...

OBJECTIVE to extend the knowledge on Muslim women's approach of antenatal anomaly screening. DESIGN qualitative interview study with pregnant Muslim women from Moroccan origin. SETTING one midwifery practice in a medium-sized city near Amsterdam participated in the study. PARTICIPANTS twelve pregnant Muslim women who live in a high density immigrant area and who attended primary midwives ...

BACKGROUND Antenatal depressive symptoms affect around 12.3% of women in in low and middle income countries (LMICs) and data are accumulating about associations with adverse outcomes for mother and child. Studies from rural, low-income country community samples are limited. This paper aims to investigate whether antenatal depressive symptoms predict perinatal complications in a rural Ethiopia s...

UK and Ireland guidelines state that all pregnant women should have their first antenatal care appointment by 13 weeks of pregnancy (antenatal booking). We present the results of an analysis looking at the association between maternal ethnicity and late antenatal booking in HIV-positive women in the UK and Ireland. We analysed data from the National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood (NSHP...

Evidence to support that antenatal screenings and interventions are effective in reducing maternal mortality has been scanty and studies have presented contradictory findings. In addition, antenatal care utilization is poorly characterized in studies. As an exposure under investigation, antenatal care should be well defined. However, measures typically only account for the frequency and timing ...

Introduction: The new focused antenatal care model recognizes that every pregnant woman is at risk for complications and four antenatal care visits are recommended for most pregnant women; the first one being early in the first trimester. When pregnant women attend antenatal care late they miss the cares being provided in the first 16 weeks. Therefore it is important to assess timing of first a...

BACKGROUND Although antenatal care coverage in Tanzania is high, worrying gaps exist in terms of its quality and ability to prevent, diagnose or treat complications. Moreover, much less is known about the utilisation of postnatal care, by which we mean the care of mother and baby that begins one hour after the delivery until six weeks after childbirth. We describe the perspectives and experienc...

Antenatal care (ANC) coverage is a success story in Africa, since over two-thirds of pregnant women (69 percent) have at least one ANC contact. However, to achieve the full life-saving potential that ANC promises for women and babies, four visits providing essential evidence based interventions – a package often called focused antenatal care – are required. Essential interventions in ANC includ...