OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of models of antenatal care designed to prevent and reduce preterm birth (PTB) in pregnant women. METHODS We conducted a search of seven electronic databases and reference lists of retrieved studies to identify trials from inception up to July 2014 where pregnant women, regardless of risk factors for pregnancy complications, were randomly allocated to rec...

INTRODUCTION Stillbirth remains an important public health problem in Australia and New Zealand. The role that antenatal care plays in the prevention of stillbirth in high-income countries is unclear. METHODS Cases were women with a singleton, late stillbirth without congenital abnormality, booked to deliver in the Auckland region and born between July 2006 and June 2009. Two controls with on...

Congenital syphilis can be prevented by antenatal syphilis screening, however, the complexity of delivering prenatal service can result in low screening rates, and thus lower prevention and treatment rates. One-stop antenatal syphilis screening, which includes rapid testing and treatment, is the proposed method to overcome this problem. The feasibility of this type of screening needs to be test...

Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... 1 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 2 Antenatal care........................................................................................................

BACKGROUND Late access to antenatal care increases risks of adverse outcomes including maternal and perinatal mortality. There is evidence that BMI influences patient engagement with health services, such as cancer screening services and delayed access to treatment; this association has not been fully explored in the context of antenatal care. This study investigated the association between the...

UK and Ireland guidelines state that all pregnant women should have their first antenatal care appointment by 13 weeks of pregnancy (antenatal booking). We present the results of an analysis looking at the association between maternal ethnicity and late antenatal booking in HIV-positive women in the UK and Ireland. We analysed data from the National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood (NSHP...

Supun D Wijesinghe 1* and Dulitha N Fernando 2 1 Consultant Community Physician, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka 2 Emeritus Professor of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Corresponding author : Supun D Wijesinghe Abstract Maternal perception of antenatal care quality is an important attribute in understanding the relationship between quality and utilizatio...

BACKGROUND Neonatal infection is a serious public health problem. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of the antenatal care on the risk of early-onset neonatal healthcare associated infection in two Brazilian maternities. METHODS Cohort study - Newborns admitted at two public neonatal intensive care units from 2008 to 2009 were included in the study. Data on antenatal and perina...

BACKGROUND Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the evidence based interventions to decrease the probability of bad health outcomes for mothers and their newborns. Effectiveness of antenatal care, however, relies on the quality of care provided during each antenatal care visit. Hence this study attempted to assess the quality of antenatal care services at public health facilities of Bahir-Dar special...

Background: Child birth is natural and continuous process in which many women are at risk for developing complication during child birth. The skilled care for all women during childbirth is a key approach for saving women’s lives and ensuring the best chance of delivering a healthy infant. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 1-31, 2014. Data were collecte...