The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new guidelines for pregnant women to prevent maternal deaths. According to the norms, a pregnant woman should either see a doctor, nurse or a trained midwife eight times during pregnancy, out of which five should be in the last trimester.
Last year, an estimated 300,000 women died from pregnancy-related causes. The number of babies that die in the womb, during birth or in the first month of their existence is more than 6 million, according to a WHO survey.
These tragedies can be reduced by certain interventions. The WHO has issued a total of 49 recommendations this year to improve quality of antenatal care. Earlier, at least four antenatal checkups were recommended for pregnant woman This number has been increased to eight. Taking into account that some places you cannot find a doctor that easily, WHO has added local midwives to its list.
A minimum of eight contacts for antenatal care can reduce perinatal deaths by up to 8 per 1000 births when compared to a minimum of four visits, according to the WHO.
With the new guidelines WHO hopes to increase maternal and fetal assessments to detect problems, and improve the likelihood of positive pregnancy outcomes. It recommends a first checkup in the first 12 weeks with subsequent contacts taking place at 20, 26, 30, 34, 36, 38 and 40 weeks’ gestation.
“More and better quality contacts between all women and their health providers throughout pregnancy will facilitate the uptake of preventive measures, timely detection of risks, reduces complications and addresses health inequalities,” says Dr Anthony Costello, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, WHO. “Antenatal care for first time mothers is key. This will determine how they use antenatal care in future pregnancies.”
Dr Metin Gülmezoglu, W.H.O’s coordinator of maternal and perinatal health said, “Each visit should be with someone with at least two years’ medical training, not a traditional birth attendant or a community health worker trained for a few weeks.”
One of the other recommendations is that every pregnant woman has to have one ultrasound scan before 24-weeks. It is to detect fatal defects and the twin or triplet pregnancies.
WHO also recommended every pregnant woman to get:
- Antibiotics for bacteria in urine.
- Iron and folic acid pills to avoid anaemia and premature births.
- Blood-sugar testing to detect diabetes.
- Tetanus shot to prevent neonatal tetanus.
- Counselling about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco and the importance of exercises.
Add to this, W.H.O also recommended some home remedies for the pregnant women.
