BACKGROUND A woman's health seeking behaviour during pregnancy has been found to have significant repercussions on her wellbeing and that of her unborn child. For example, the risk of poor pregnancy outcomes and maternal death is higher among women who do not receive antenatal care. METHODS The study described the characteristics of women who reported wanted, unwanted and mistimed pregnancies...

BACKGROUND Male involvement during antenatal care is promoted to be an important intervention to increase positive maternal and new born health outcomes. Despite active promotion to stimulate male involvement during antenatal care, few men in Tanzania accompany women to their antenatal care visits. This study aims to understand perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of men regarding their role an...

BACKGROUND Obesity has been associated with increased risk of antenatal depression, but little is known about this relationship. This study tested whether socio-economic status (SES) influences the relationship between obesity and antenatal depression. METHODS Data were taken from the Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE) cohort. BMI was calculated from measured height and weight at 15±1 ...

BACKGROUND Antenatal care service which is among strategies to maintain maternal and fetal wellbeing is strongly recommended to be initiated early during pregnancy. To developing world where there is uncommon practice of pre-pregnancy care and support, timely commencement is crucial in getting potential benefits from some of the elements of the care. Therefore, we sought to assess timing and fa...

In contrast to the UK, Canada and New Zealand, where general practitioner (GP) involvement in pregnancy care has decreased, GPs in Australia continue to be high providers of antenatal care.2 However, there is very little published research about the antenatal care provided by GPs in Australia. Australia has consistently had lower maternal and perinatal death rates than the majority of comparabl...

BACKGROUND The Department of Radiology at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, has been performing fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) since 2007. Fetal MRI findings have not previously been analysed to correlate them with antenatal and postnatal findings. OBJECTIVES To determine the most common indication for fetal MRI, and to correlate antenatal MRI with antenatal ultrasound ...

objective: there are various attempts to confirm variables that could predict postpartum depression in advance. this study determined antenatal risk factors for postpartum depression in women at risk of developing this disorder. methods: a prospective cohort study was conducted with 2279 eligible women who attended at mazandaran province’ primary health centers from 32-42 weeks of pregnancy to ...

The aim of this paper is to propose a framework for making antenatal care an effective strategy in reducing the high maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria. On-site visits to five teaching hospitals were carried out between 2006 and 2008 to assess the practice of antenatal care. Group discussions with 200 parturients on their awareness of birth preparedness/complication readiness were conducted, i...

BACKGROUND Lack of resources has been identified as a reason for non-adherence to clinical guidelines. Our aim was to describe public health facility resource availability in relation to provider adherence to first antenatal visit guidelines. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis of the baseline data of a prospective cohort study on adherence to first antenatal care visit guidelines was carried ...

This prospective study was carried out to evaluate the utilisation of antenatal care at the Provincial Specialist Hospital, Mongomo, Guinea Equatoria, paying close attention to the confounding factors affecting effective antenatal care (ANC) delivery. Information was elicited from 200 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic using a questionnaire. Previous antenatal clinic attendance was h...