Table 1.
Services delivered during antenatal care: |
• Basic package for all pregnant women |
• Situational interventions for populations of women at high exposure risk (e.g. identification and treatment of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV) |
• Behavioural, social support and financial interventions for disadvantaged women |
Management of pregnant women at higher risk of preterm birth including: |
• Identification and treatment of pre-existing conditions (e.g., diabetes, thyroid disease, heart disease, asthma and other chronic conditions) |
• Identification and treatment of pregnancy complications (e.g., pre-eclampsia, antepartum haemorrhage) |
• Monitoring multiple pregnancies |
• Administration of progesterone to prolong pregnancy |
• Identification and treatment of structural abnormalities (e.g., cervical cerclage, cervical pessary) |
Management of women in preterm labour including: |
• Tocolytics to slow down labour |
• Antenatal corticosteroids to reduce mortality in the newborn |
• Antibiotics for pPROM to prevent infection |
• Provision of magnesium sulphate for neuro-protection of the newborn |
Community interventions: |
• Promote antenatal and skilled birth care for all women |
• Smoking cessation programmes |
• Reductions in exposure to secondhand smoke and other pollutants |
Policy interventions: |
• Policies to support safe motherhood and universal access to antenatal care |
• Workplace policies regulating working hours and strenuous working conditions |
• Professional and hospital policies to regulate infertility treatments and to reduce caesarean section rates and early induction of labour |
Source: Born Too Soon report [1].