What are the Purposes of Antenatal Care

What is Antenatal Care?

Antenatal care is the clinical assessment of mother and fetus during pregnancy. It traditionally involves several routine visits approximately 12-16 for assessment of pregnant women before and during pregnancy.

The objective of antenatal care is to ensure the supervision of maternal and fetal well-being during pregnancy, identify and treat conditions that may threaten the health of the fetus/ newborn and mother. Also making available all appropriate choices to fulfill optimal potential, and providing all necessary support and preparation for a high-quality life after birth. Another objective of antenatal-care is to help women approach pregnancy and birth as positive experiences.

The objective of Antenatal Care:

Antenatal-care refers to the care of pregnant women. The main objectives of antenatal-care are:

1. Maintenance of health of the mother during pregnancy.
2. Promote physical, mental, and social well being of mother and child.
3. Ensure delivery of a full-term healthy baby.
4. Early detection of high-risk cases and minimize risks by taking appropriate management.
5. Prevent the development of complications through health education, adequate nutrition, exercise, vitamin intake, and appropriate medical and pharmaceutical intervention.
6. Screening for conditions and diseases such as anemia, STIs, HIV infection, mental health problems, and domestic violence.
7. Teach the mother about child care, nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene.
8. Decrease maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.
9. Remove the stress and worries of the mother regarding the delivery process.
10. Provide safe delivery for mother and educate mother about the physiology of pregnancy and labor by demonstrations, charts, and diagrams so that fear is removed and physiology improved.
11. Advice family planning and motive the couple about the need for family planning.
12. Predict possible problems during pregnancy and provide appropriate treatment.
13. Provide information on pregnancy and birth and discuss with the couple about the place, time, and mode of the delivery provisionally and care of the newborn.
14. Ensure continued medical surveillance and prophylaxis.
15. Advice the mother about breastfeeding, postnatal care, and immunization.
16. Advice and support to the woman and her family for developing healthy home behaviors.

More questions related to this topic:

1. What are the aims of antenatal cares?
2. What are the purposes of focused antenatal cares?
3. What are the benefits of focused antenatal cares?
4. What is the importance of antenatal cares?
5. Mention the objectives of focused antenatal cares.
6. Briefly discuss some objectives of focused antenatal cares.
7. Mention some important aspects of antenatal cares.
8. Point out some components of focused antenatal cares.
9. Discuss the principles of antenatal cares.
10. Write a short note on antenatal-care guidelines.

Maria Mona

Maria Khatun Mona is a Founder and Editor of Nursing Exercise Blog. She is a Nursing and Midwifery Expert. Currently she is working as a Registered Nurse at Evercare Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has great passion in writing different articles on Nursing and Midwifery. Mail her at “[email protected]”