# Antenatal (prenatal) care Care topic · id `maternal:antenatal-care` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `c7fb95f1d15a7d13` (public) > General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here. The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations. Browse, life stage: Pregnancy Browse, care area: Routine pregnancy care ## In plain language Antenatal care, also called prenatal care, is the care a pregnant person gets from a health care provider during pregnancy. At regular visits the provider checks the person’s health, follows how the pregnancy is going and can find problems early, when treatment can often help. In 2016 the World Health Organization recommended antenatal care models with at least eight contacts with a health care provider. ## Technical summary Scope follows the MedlinePlus pregnancy topic (last updated June 9, 2025) and the NIH pregnancy page, which shows a last reviewed date of 1/31/2017 and may be out of date. The WHO 2016 guideline is global guidance; it concerns the number of contacts and not what is done at each. This page is the hub for the routine screening statements in this atlas: infections, gestational diabetes, iron and weight gain counseling. WHO has since updated some antenatal topics (listed on its page); whether any changes the eight-contact recommendation was not checked. ## Claims, with the population each applies to ## Context: Women and girls receiving routine antenatal care (WHO 2016) Recipient: Maternal; Population: Women and girls who are pregnant and receive routine antenatal care, delivered in health facilities or in the community. WHO notes that the guideline also concerns their unborn babies and newborns.; Care setting: Routine antenatal care, wherever it is given (facility or community).; Geography: Global; WHO writes the guideline for all settings.; Life stage: Pregnancy; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: Not applicable (recommendation context) ### WHO recommends that routine antenatal care include at least eight contacts between the pregnant woman and a health worker. It gives two aims: fewer deaths around birth and a better experience of care for women, and it labels the advice Recommended. WHO says the older four-visit focused model gives women too little contact and should no longer be used. It prefers the word contact to visit because it suggests an active link between woman and provider, and says contacts can be arranged to suit local conditions, for example through community outreach and lay health workers. - Category: Recommendation - Evidence stage: Guidance - Certainty: Certainty not assessed - Applies to: Recipient: Maternal; Population: Women and girls who are pregnant and receive routine antenatal care, delivered in health facilities or in the community. WHO notes that the guideline also concerns their unborn babies and newborns.; Care setting: Routine antenatal care, wherever it is given (facility or community).; Geography: Global; WHO writes the guideline for all settings.; Life stage: Pregnancy; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: Not applicable (recommendation context) - Limitations: The advice is about how many contacts there are, not what happens at each one. WHO notes that studies from high-income countries found about the same maternal and perinatal outcomes with eight contacts as with 11 to 15. The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual antenatal topics (2020 to 2022); whether any of them changes this recommendation was not checked. This atlas does not restate WHO’s evidence summary or its certainty rating, so certainty is not assessed. - Last checked: 2026-10-14 - Sources: 1. Supports: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Recommendation E.7, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101). Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:23:13Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182. How it applies: WHO 2016 PDF, recommendation E.7 and its remarks. The PDF copyright page says All rights reserved; cited, not quoted, in public text (source is cite\_only). 2. Supports: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Recommendation E.7, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101), strength label. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:23:13Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182. How it applies: WHO 2016 PDF, recommendation E.7 and its remarks. The PDF copyright page says All rights reserved; cited, not quoted, in public text (source is cite\_only). 3. Supports: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 1, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101). Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:23:13Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182. How it applies: WHO 2016 PDF, recommendation E.7 and its remarks. The PDF copyright page says All rights reserved; cited, not quoted, in public text (source is cite\_only). 4. Supports: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 2, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101). Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:23:13Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182. How it applies: WHO 2016 PDF, recommendation E.7 and its remarks. The PDF copyright page says All rights reserved; cited, not quoted, in public text (source is cite\_only). 5. Background: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 3, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101). Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:23:13Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182. How it applies: WHO remarks on high-income country studies. 6. Background: WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience (Guideline, edition WHO guideline, 2016. The who.int publication page shows 28 November 2016; the IRIS record (handle 10665/250796) gives an issue date of 2016-11-07. The text comes from the PDF on IRIS (file 9789241549912-eng.pdf, fetched through the IRIS REST API; its MD5 equals the checksum in the IRIS bitstream record). The who.int page lists later WHO updates of individual topics (2020 to 2022); whether any changes recommendation E.7 was not checked.) Locator: Overview. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:21:03Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 51b7d4a15d4c7f33497e210beea7b376c59e3544347b2adf65bab2c944dfcfdf. How it applies: WHO publication page: who the guideline is for. ## Connected pages - Filed under this front: Care programmes and follow-up (`maternal:front-care-programmes-and-follow-up`) - Blood pressure and urine checks at visits look for pre-eclampsia (existing record): Pre-eclampsia (`maternal:preeclampsia`) - Aspirin is offered through antenatal care (existing record): Low-dose aspirin to prevent pre-eclampsia (`maternal:low-dose-aspirin-preeclampsia-prevention`) - Related to: Iron supplementation and iron screening in pregnancy (`maternal:antenatal-iron-supplementation`) - Related to: Physical activity in pregnancy (`maternal:physical-activity-in-pregnancy`) - Related to: Screening for infections in pregnancy (syphilis, hepatitis B, bacteriuria) (`maternal:prenatal-infection-screening`) - Recommended for this: Help to stop smoking in pregnancy (`maternal:smoking-cessation-in-pregnancy`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `maternal:claim-uspstf-2021-tobacco-behavioral-interventions-pregnancy` and its context] - Related to: Alcohol exposure in pregnancy (fetus) (`maternal:prenatal-alcohol-exposure`) ## Provenance Content hash: 01bdbce0dd829ec4b586586950fdb26e427d14b0b8bfdb54aef8004e5274acdc Last substantive edit: 2026-10-14 Evidence last checked: 2026-10-14