APPROACHES TO MEASURING ANTENATAL CARE

Assoc. Prof. Tsveta Hristova, PhD

Department of Health Care University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev”

ORCID: 0000-0001-6526-9041

E-mail: tshristova@uni-ruse.bg

Chief Assist. Yoana Lukanova, PhD

Department of Health care University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev”

ORCID: 0000-0002-4128-2601

E-mail: ylukanova@uni-ruse.bg

Abstract

Prenatal care is a key obstetric service that leads to fewer hospitalizations, improved education, greater satisfaction, and lower morbidity and mortality associated with pregnancy and imminent delivery. The purpose of this study is to analyze leading research in the global, medical evidence data base on approaches used to measure prenatal care delivered and formulate opportunities for effective care improvement. Both quantitative and qualitative measures are considered - indexes, WHO recommendations, questionnaires for pregnant women on their satisfaction with the antenatal care received. It is concluded that there is a need to develop a theoretically grounded measure of antenatal care quality that is distinct from satisfaction measures to better assess the correlation between antenatal care quality and pregnancy outcomes.

Keywords

prenatal care, pregnancy, systematic review, childbirth

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