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Routine prenatal care

There was a lot of discussion in the media during my last weeks in London about the UK Government’s decision to cut back the number of antenatal checks from 14 to 10 for first time mothers and to 7 for subsequent pregnancies. Ultrasound scans will be scheduled to take the place of some visits for all women and will be the main reference point for the due date.

The aim is to enable doctors to spend more time with women who are sick rather than seeing healthy women who are busy and not in need of special care. In general, these guidelines follow the evidence that was available some time ago in the Cochrane Library, and are a logical outcome of accepting that pregnancy is a well-ness not an illness condition.

I was amused therefore, to learn from Susanna Houd that in Denmark they have cut the number of visit required to three with the woman able to request more if she feels the need or if her condition suggests additional care is necessary. Susanna’s view was that women are healthy on the whole and everyone (midwives and women) gets sick of routine visits that achieve very little. There is also the understanding that if a woman is concerned she will seek a consultation with her caregiver - in other words, women are credited with being able to take responsibility for their own health (and that of their baby). What a refreshing attitude!

Posted by andrea at November 03, 2003 04:25 PM

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