Through this form of preventive health care, women can learn from trained health personnel about healthy behaviors during pregnancy, better understand warning signs during pregnancy and childbirth, and receive social, emotional support and psychological at this critical moment in their lives. Through antenatal care, pregnant women can also access micronutrient supplementation, hypertension treatment to prevent eclampsia, as well as tetanus vaccination. Antenatal care can also provide HIV testing and medications to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In areas where malaria is endemic, health workers can provide pregnant women with medicines and insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent this debilitating and sometimes fatal disease.
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Regular contact with a doctor, nurse or midwife during pregnancy allows women to benefit from vital services for their health and that of their future children. The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its recommendations from a minimum of four antenatal care contacts to a minimum of eight contacts to reduce perinatal mortality and improve women’s experience of antenatal care. care. However, data reporting at global, regional and national levels is currently only available for a minimum of four visits, in line with the previous recommendation. These data indicate that the proportion of women receiving at least four antenatal care visits varies widely across countries, ranging from 24 percent in sub-Saharan African countries to more than 90 percent in countries of different regions, including Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. .
Globally, while 88 percent of pregnant women access antenatal care from a skilled health worker at least once, only two in three (66 percent) receive at least four antenatal care visits. In regions where rates of Maternal mortality, as in West and Central Africa and South Asia, even fewer women received at least four antenatal care visits (53 percent and 55 percent, respectively). When reviewing this data, it is important to remember that the percentages do not take into consideration the skill level of the health care provider or the quality of care, both of which can influence the actual success of that care in improving health. maternal and neonatal.
Historical data shows that the proportion of women receiving at least four antenatal care visits has increased globally over the past decade. However, the scale and pace of this progress differ considerably between regions. In West and Central Africa, for example, only about half of pregnant women received at least four antenatal visits between 2015 and 2021 (53%). Stronger and faster progress is needed in all the most affected regions to significantly improve outcomes for mothers and newborns.
Disparities in antenatal care coverage
Despite progress, large regional and global disparities among women receiving four or more antenatal care visits are observed by location and wealth. Women living in urban areas are more likely to receive at least four antenatal care visits than those living in rural areas, with an urban-rural gap of 22 percentage points (78 percent and 56 percent, respectively). ). Additionally, antenatal care coverage increases with wealth, with women in the richest quintile twice as likely to receive at least four antenatal care visits as those in the poorest quintile, with a wealth gap of 34 points percentage (77 percent and 43 percent). hundred, respectively).
The references
UNICEF, 2019, Healthy mothers, healthy babies: taking stock of maternal healthNew York 2019.
World Health Organization, 2016, WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience 2016.
UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2021 UNICEF, New York, 2021.
WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank, Trends in maternal mortality: 2000 to 2017, WHO, Geneva, 2019.
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Data Notes
Definition of indicators
Prenatal care coverage (at least one visit) is the percentage of women aged 15 to 49 who had a live birth in a given period and who received antenatal care provided by a skilled health worker (doctor, nurse or midwife) at least once during their pregnancy.
Skilled health personnel refers to workers/carers who are accredited health professionals – such as a midwife, doctor or nurse – who have been trained and trained to master the skills necessary to manage normal pregnancies (without complications), childbirth and the immediate postnatal period. and in the identification, management and referral of complications in women and newborns. Traditional birth attendants, trained or not, are excluded.
Prenatal care coverage (at least four visits) is the percentage of women aged 15 to 49 who had a live birth in a given period and who received prenatal care four or more times. The survey data available on this indicator generally do not specify the type of provider; therefore, in general, the receipt of care by any of them supplier is measured.
Antenatal visits provide opportunities to reach pregnant women with interventions that can be vital to their health and well-being as well as that of their infants. The 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 tests for bacteriuria and proteinuria
- blood tests to detect syphilis and severe anemia
- weight/height measurement (optional).
Measurement limits. Receiving antenatal care during pregnancy does not guarantee receipt of effective interventions to improve 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. It is important to note that while the indicator “at least one visit” refers to visits to qualified health providers (doctor, nurse or midwife), “four visits or more” refers to visits with any of them provider because global and national standardized household survey programs do not collect data on providers at every visit. Furthermore, standardizing the definition of qualified health personnel is sometimes difficult due to differences in the training of health personnel across countries.
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