During the last two decades, the use of maternal health services has increased dramatically in Pakistan, with nearly 80% of Pakistani women making an antenatal care (ANC) visit during their pregnancy. Yet, this increase in use of modern health services has not translated into significant increases in the adoption of contraception. Even though Pakistan has had a national family planning programm...

OBJECTIVES Rates of pregnancy and HIV infection are high among South African adolescents, yet little is known about rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) in this group. We report a comparison of the characteristics of adolescent mothers and adult mothers, including HIV prevalence and MTCT rates. METHODS We examined patterns of health service utilization during the antenatal and ...

BACKGROUND Pregnancy complications are one of the major public health concerns. One of the main causes of preventable complications is the absence of or inadequate provision of prenatal care. The present study was conducted to investigate whether Extended Parallel Process Model's constructs can predict the utilization of prenatal care services. METHODS The present longitudinal prospective stu...

BACKGROUND Promotion of institutional delivery is a key intervention in reducing maternal mortality and improving maternal and neonatal health. This study explored factors associated with institutional delivery in rural Nepal. METHOD A household survey was conducted in three rural Village Development Committees of Kavrepalanchowk district to identify the individual, household and health servi...

background: the aim of the study was to compare the effects of 'face-to-face education' and 'educational movies' on  'knowledge' and 'practice' of women of child-bearing-age, in terms of health-care during pregnancy and during infancy in a suburban region near tehran city, iran.   methods: in this quasi-experimental study, the sample included 873 married women. questionnaires for knowledge and ...

The persistence of negative perinatal outcomes in Rio de Janeiro suggests problems in the quality of prenatal care. The most recent study in the city showed that only 38% of prenatal care was adequate. This study aimed to evaluate the adequacy of prenatal care under the Brazilian Unified National Health System in the city of Rio de Janeiro. A cross-sectional study in 2007-2008 interviewed 2,422...

OBJECTIVE to examine satisfaction with care and services in relation to antenatal care and prenatal testing and to present what women say about what can be done better to improve antenatal care for women from an Islamic background. DESIGN in-depth interviews of women's perceptions and experiences of care received relating to prenatal testing and antenatal care. SETTING Melbourne Metropolita...

PURPOSE To compare the filling out of the prenatal care card of pregnant women at a school-service and other services, as well as to verify the concordance between these records and verbal information provided by the puerperae. METHODS A two-stage epidemiological, cross-sectional study was performed with stratified sampling, proportional to number of births. In the first stage, the informatio...

objective: this study was performed to determine the level of satisfaction among women attending the prenatal clinics in the city of zanjan, iran. materials and methods: this descriptive cross- sectional study was performed from 2005 to 2006 in zanjan. a total of 701 pregnant women with gestational age of 20 weeks or more who had undergone at least two prenatal visits in prenatal care centers w...

BACKGROUND In spite of the introduction of free maternal healthcare in Ghana, utilization of supervised delivery services continues to be low due partly to poor quality of antenatal care (ANC). AIM The study sought to identify the determinants of perceived quality of ANC and uptake of skilled delivery services. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 363 expectant mothers were randomly selected in ...