OBJECTIVE To assess the quality and effect of antenatal health education on health-related issues during pregnancy, and the benefits to women during the peri-partum period. METHODS This is a descriptive study of 300 women attending the Postnatal Clinics and Women Health Clinics in 2 Family Medicine centers at King AbdulAziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Th...

BACKGROUND The results of a qualitative study carried out in four developing countries (Cuba, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Argentina) are presented. The study was conducted in the context of a randomised controlled trial to test the benefits of a new antenatal care protocol that reduced the number of visits to the doctor, rationalised the application of technology, and improved the provision of i...

BACKGROUND Many countries have integrated antenatal care as an essential part of routine maternal health services. The importance of this service cannot be overemphasized as many women's lives are usually saved particularly through early detection of pregnancy related complications. However, while many women would attend at least one visit for ante natal care (ANC), completion of recommended nu...

INTRODUCTION Globally every year 529,000 maternal deaths occur, 99% of this in developing countries. Uganda has high maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality ratios, typical of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent findings reveal maternal mortality ratio of 435:100,000 live births and neonatal mortality rate of 29 deaths per 1000 live births in Uganda; these still remain a challeng...

BACKGROUND Antenatal Care (ANC) during pregnancy can play an important role in the uptake of evidence-based services vital to the health of women and their infants. Studies report positive effects of ANC on use of facility-based delivery and perinatal mortality. However, most existing studies are limited to cross-sectional surveys with long recall periods, and generally do not include populatio...

BACKGROUND Birth weight reflects gestational conditions and development during the fetal period. Low birth weight (LBW) may be associated with antenatal care (ANC) adequacy and quality. The purpose of this study was to analyze ANC adequacy and its relationship with LBW in the Unified Health System in Brazil. METHODS A case-control study was conducted in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, 2004 to 20...

Background: Nepal has made remarkable improvements in maternal health outcomes. The implementation of demand and supply side strategies have often been attributed with the observed increase in utilization of maternal healthcare services. In 2005, Free Delivery Care (FDC) policy was implemented under the name of Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS), with the intention of reducing transport costs ass...

Background Neonatal mortality is unacceptably high in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, where access to emergency obstetric services is limited, antenatal care (ANC) utilization offers improved maternal health and birth outcomes. However, evidence for this is scanty and mixed. We explored the association between attendance for ANC and survival of neonates in 57 ...

OBJECTIVES This study was performed to evaluate the use of individual components of antenatal care (ANC) services by pregnant women across India in addition to counting of ANC visits and then analyze differences according to state, socioeconomic condition, and access to health care services. METHODS The study used a nationally representative sample of 36,850 women from the National Family Hea...

BACKGROUND The importance of antenatal care (ANC) for improving perinatal outcomes is well established. However access to ANC in Kenya has hardly changed in the past 20 years. This study aims to identify the determinants of attending ANC and the association between attendance and behavioural and perinatal outcomes (live births and healthy birthweight) for women in the Kwale region of Kenya. M...