WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

In 2016, at the start of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, pregnancy-related preventable morbidity and mortality remains unacceptably high. While substantial progress has been made, countries need to consolidate and increase these advances, and to expand their agendas to go beyond survival, with a view to maximizing the health and potential of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) envisions a world where every pregnant woman and newborn receives quality care throughout the pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Within the continuum of reproductive health care, antenatal care (ANC) provides a platform for important health-care functions, including health promotion, screening and diagnosis, and disease prevention. It has been established that by implementing timely and appropriate evidence-based practices, ANC can save lives. Crucially, ANC also provides the opportunity to communicate with and support women, families and communities at a critical time in the course of a woman’s life. The process of developing these recommendations on ANC has highlighted the importance of providing effective communication about physiological, biomedical, behavioural and sociocultural issues, and effective support, including social, cultural, emotional and psychological support, to pregnant women in a respectful way. These communication and support functions of ANC are key, not only to saving lives, but to improving lives, health-care utilization and quality of care. Women’s positive experiences during ANC and childbirth can create the foundations for healthy motherhood. This is a comprehensive WHO guideline on routine ANC for pregnant women and adolescent girls. The aim is for these recommendations to complement existing WHO guidelines on the management of specific pregnancyrelated complications. The guidance is intended to reflect and respond to the complex nature of the issues surrounding the practice and delivery of ANC, and to prioritize person-centred health and well-being – not only the prevention of death and morbidity – in accordance with a human rights-based approach. The scope of this guideline was informed by a systematic review of women’s views, which shows that women want a positive pregnancy experience from ANC. A positive pregnancy experience is defined as maintaining physical and sociocultural normality, maintaining a healthy pregnancy for mother and baby (including preventing or treating risks, illness and death), having an effective transition to positive labour and birth, and achieving positive motherhood (including maternal self-esteem, competence and autonomy). Recognizing that a woman’s experience of care is key to ransforming ANC and creating thriving families and communities, this guideline addresses the following questions: n What are the evidence-based practices during ANC that improve outcomes and lead to a positive pregnancy experience? n How should these practices be delivered?