Antenatal Risk Assessment and Pregnancy Risk Factors
Definition of Antenatal Care:
Antenatal care is the clinical assessment of mother and fetus during pregnancy. It traditionally involves a number of routine visits approximately 12-16 for assessment of pregnant women before and during pregnancy. Antenatal care means the medical care that women receive when they are pregnant.
Risk Assessment of Antenatal Care:
Antenatal assessment is the screening for high-risk factors. Risk factors are any findings that have been shown to have effect on childbirth outcomes.
1. Social personal:
- Low income level,
- Low education,
- Poor diet,
- Multipara,
- Weight less than 45.5 kg or more than 91 kgs,
- Age less than 16 or more than 35 years,
- Smoking,
- Use of addicting drug and,
- Excessive alcohol consumption.
2. Preexisting medical disorders:
- DM,
- Cardiac disease,
- Anaemia,
- Hypertension,
- Thyroid disorder,
- Renal disease,
- DES exposure.
3. Obstetric conditions:
a. Previous pregnancy:
- Stillborn,
- Habitual abortion,
- Cesarean section,
- Rh or blood group sensitization.
b. Current pregnancy:
- Rubella cytomegalo virus,
- Herpes virus type 2,
- Syphilis,
- Abruption placenta/placenta previa,
- PIH,
- Multiple gestation and,
- Spontaneous premature rupture membranes.
Problems Related To Not Receiving Antenatal Care:
Problems related to not receiving antenatal care (ANC) are-
- Lack of awareness about the advantage of quality of care.
- Poor woman status: The decision about attending is not the pregnant woman to make; often older members of the family and husbands see no need for ANC and they rely on traditional methods of dealing with pregnancy.
- The facilities for providing ANC are inadequate, are not functioning correctly.
- Knowledge gap: ignorance; the pregnant women still not knows why they should attend for ANC.
- Travel and transport problems make it difficult for the pregnant women to go for ANC or for health care providers to go out to provide community based ANC.
- Inadequate cultural transport.
- Superstition and anxiety about letting any health care provider examine the pregnant women during pregnancy.
- General dislike and distrust of all health care providers.
- Financial problems.
Risk Factors That May Arise During Pregnancy:
All the risk factors that may arise during pregnancy are-
- Fetal movement pattern changed or reduced,
- Hb level lower than 10 g/dl,
- Poor weight gain, weight loss,
- Proteinuria, glycosuria, bacilluria,
- BP systolic of or above 140 mmHg, diastolic of or more above 90 mmHg or 15 more above booking diastolic,
- Uterus large or small for gestation,
- Excess or decrease liquor,
- Malpresentation,
- Head not engaged in primigravida women at term,
- Any vaginal, cervical or uterine bleeding,
- Preterm labor,
- Infection,
- Any chronic or acute illness or disease in the women,
- Relevant sociological or psychological factors.
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 “maria.mona023@gmail.com”