Antenatal care in developing countries: promises, achievements and missed opportunities - an analysis of trends, levels and differentials, 1990-2001

ABSTRACT

The provision of special care for women during pregnancy through the public health services was a relatively late development in modern obstetrics. Not until the late 1930s did the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland authorities decide that all women should be offered regular check-ups during pregnancy as an integral part of maternity care, some 30 years after the introduction of formalized labour and delivery care. This development was stimulated by the realization that whereas maternal mortality due to puerperal sepsis, haemorrhage and obstructed labour had declined substantially during the early years of the 20th century, this was not the case for deaths associated with eclampsia. If these eclampsia-related deaths were to be averted, it was supposed, interventions would be needed earlier during the pregnancy, to measure blood pressure, identify women at risk of eclamptic convulsions, and take measures to reduce blood pressure whenever possible