antenatal care introduction?

Antenatal care

Empty heading

Antenatal care is essential for protecting the health of women and their unborn children. Through this form of preventive health care, women can learn from skilled health personnel about healthy behaviors during pregnancy, better understand warning signs during pregnancy and childbirth, and receive social, emotional and psychological support at this critical time in their lives. Through antenatal care, pregnant women can also access micronutrient supplementation, treatment for hypertension to prevent eclampsia, as well as immunization against tetanus. Antenatal care can also provide HIV testing and medications to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In areas where malaria is endemic, health personnel can provide pregnant women with medications and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to help prevent this debilitating and sometimes deadly disease.
zoom_out_map
Data
Antenatal care coverage

Data explorer
Build your own dataset

Build and download your own customizable dataset on antenatal care data

Maternal and newborn health coverage
date_rangeMay 2022
Download spreadsheet

Resources

book Publications

Renewing progress on women | s, children | s and adolescents | health in the era of COVID-19

book Publications

Ending preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2030

format_align_left Journal articles

Measurement and accountability for maternal, newborn and child health: Fit for 2030?

format_align_left Journal articles

Measurement of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition

public Country profiles

Maternal and Newborn Health Disparities country profiles

place Guidance

Every Newborn Action Plan: Country implementation tracking tool guidance note

place Guidance

Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum and Newborn Care: A guide for essential practice

book Publications

Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2015
Notes on the data
Definition of indicators

Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit) is the percentage of women aged 15 to 49 with a live birth in a given time period that received antenatal care provided by skilled health personnel (doctor, nurse or midwife) at least once during pregnancy.

Skilled health personnel refers to workers/attendants that are accredited health professionals – such as a midwife, doctor or nurse – who have been educated and trained to proficiency in the skills needed to manage normal (uncomplicated) pregnancies, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, and in the identification, management and referral of complications in women and newborns. Both trained and untrained traditional birth attendants are excluded.

Antenatal care coverage (at least four visits) is the percentage of women aged 15 to 49 with a live birth in a given time period that received antenatal care four or more times. Available survey data on this indicator usually do not specify the type of the provider; therefore, in general, receipt of care by any provider is measured.

Antenatal visits present opportunities for reaching pregnant women with interventions that may be vital to their health and well-being and that of their infants. WHO recommends a minimum of four antenatal visits based on a review of the effectiveness of different models of antenatal care. WHO guidelines are specific on the content of antenatal care visits, which should include:

blood pressure measurement
urine testing for bacteriuria and proteinuria
blood testing to detect syphilis and severe anaemia
weight/height measurement (optional).

Measurement limitations. Receiving antenatal care during pregnancy does not guarantee the receipt of interventions that are effective in improving maternal health. Receiving antenatal care at least four times, which is recommended by WHO, increases the likelihood of receiving effective maternal health interventions during antenatal visits. Importantly, although the indicator for | at least one visit | refers to visits with skilled health providers (doctor, nurse or midwife), | four or more visits | refers to visits with any provider, since standardized global national-level household survey programmes do not collect provider data for each visit. In addition, standardization of the definition of skilled health personnel is sometimes difficult because of differences in training of health personnel in different countries.