Antenatal Clinic
The guidelines recommend management of common obstetric conditions at primary and referral level, based on local experience and evidence-based practice. They are not intended as strict protocols nor as standard operating procedures, but rather as a guide to safe effective management of common obstetric problems. The guidelines should be most useful to interns, medical officers and registrars.
Ideally, only high risk pregnancies & midwife referrals should be managed at hospitals. Women without risk factors are best seen at midwife-run clinics from which they can be referred if necessary. Where a hospital manages low risk pregnant women, these should be separated from the high risk group & be seen by midwives. A list of high risk conditions is given here.
THE ANTENATAL RECORD
This fold-up card, or the relevant pages in the national maternity file, is the essential record of the pregnancy & must be completed at each antenatal clinic visit & retained by the pregnant woman until delivery. Women who present with a card from another province should have that card completed at the clinic, rather than be issued with a new card which would duplicate or mask information from earlier in the pregnancy. The content of antenatal cards may vary between provinces, but most formats are adequate for essential antenatal care.