A New Look at Care in Pregnancy: Simple, Effective Interventions for Neglected Populations

This report seeks to fill a research gap observed on the potential impact of antenatal care (ANC). Since the work done by WHO almost 15 years ago, there has been relatively little attention in the maternal-newborn health community to the content and potential impact of ANC. For the past 15 years, maternal health programmes have focused largely on labour and birth, interventions that occur at the end of a pregnancy. The authors observe a noticeable lack in ANC that would reduce: maternal mortality, newborn mortality, stillbirth, prematurity and intrauterine growth restriction.

This paper seeks to build a case that there is significant potential for reducing mortality when key interventions provided during pregnancy are delivered at high coverage, particularly among disadvantaged populations.