We used qualitative methods to assess pregnant women and men's attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions to male partners' involvement in antenatal clinic (ANC) in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. The aims of these studies were to determine barriers to male partners' attendance of ANC with their pregnant female partners and to identify possible strategies to overcome these ba...

BACKGROUND Countries measure trends in HIV incidence to assess the impact of HIV prevention and treatment programmes. Most countries have approximated trends in HIV incidence through modelled estimates or through trends in HIV prevalence among young people (aged 15-24 years) assuming they have recently become sexually active and have thus only been recently exposed to HIV. METHODS Trends in H...

OBJECTIVES Studies have widely documented the socioeconomic inequalities in maternal and child health related outcomes in developing countries including India. However, there is limited research on the inequalities in advice provided by public health workers on maternal and child health during antenatal visits. This paper investigates the inequalities in advice provided by public health workers...

BACKGROUND Despite focused health policies and reform agenda, Kenya has challenges in improving households' situation in poverty and ill health; interventions to address the Millennium Development Goals in maternal and child health, such as focused antenatal care and immunization of children, are yet to achieve success. Research has shown that addressing the demand side is critical in improving...

BACKGROUND The high rate of antenatal care attendance in sub-Saharan Africa, should facilitate provision of information on signs of potential pregnancy complications. The aim of this study was to assess quality of antenatal care with respect to providers' counselling of pregnancy danger signs in Rufiji district, Tanzania. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted in 18 primary health faci...

BACKGROUND In the absence of reliable data, antenatal HIV surveillance has been used to monitor the HIV epidemic since the late 1980s. Currently, routine data from Prevention of Mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programmes are increasingly available. Evaluating whether the PMTCT programme reports provide comparable HIV prevalence estimates with the antenatal surveillance reports is impor...

Pregnant women’s knowledge and husband’s support are factors that influence antenatal care regularity. Thisstudy aims to analyze the effect of pregnant women on careregularity. This study a cross-sectional design was conducted 38 as respondentsusing linear regression statistical tests. The result showed there an pregnantwomen regularity care. better about their pregnancy higher husbands will ha...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook in Mongolia to increase antenatal clinic attendance, and to enhance health-seeking behaviors and other health outcomes. METHODS A cluster randomized trial was conducted using the translated MCH handbook in Bulgan, Mongolia to assess its effectiveness in promoting antenatal care attendance. Pregnant women wer...

BACKGROUND Care of pregnant women with concurrent medical conditions can be optimized by multidisciplinary antenatal management. In the current study we describe women with concurrent medical conditions who attended our antenatal anesthesia clinic over a 14-year period, 2002-2015 and, based on the findings, we suggest new policies, strategies and practices to improve antenatal care. METHODS I...