Percent women attended at least four times for antenatal care during pregnancy
Definition:
The percent of women ages 15 to 49 with a live birth within a given time period who attended antenatal care (ANC) four or more times during their most recent pregnancy. Whether at a facility or community-based, optimally the ANC should be provided by skilled personnel including doctors, midwives, or nurses with midwifery skills. The number of live births is used as proxy for the numbers of women who need ANC care.
Based on a review of the effectiveness of different ANC models, WHO has recommended a standard model of four antenatal visits (WHO 2002). WHO guidelines on the content of ANC visits include the following components: clinical examination, blood testing to detect syphilis and severe anemia (and HIV, malaria, etc. according to the epidemiological context), gestational age estimation, uterine height, blood pressure, maternal weight and height, test for sexually transmitted infections (STI)s, urine test, request blood type and Rh, tetanus toxoid, iron/Folic acid supplementation, and recommendations for emergencies (WHO, 2002). For more detail on this and related indicators