Maternal & Newborn Atlas
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Antenatal (prenatal) care

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.

  • Care topic
  • In this atlas

Overview

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topic (last updated June 9, 2025) and the NIH pregnancy page, which shows a last reviewed date of 1/31/2017 and may be out of date.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.

Scope

Routine visits, checks and tests in a healthy pregnancy

Life stages
  • pregnancy
Care setting
Not reported

Claims and evidence

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)
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; 1 exclusion criterion
Included
  • Pregnant women and girls receiving routine antenatal care
Excluded
  • Not stated on the who.int page

  • Recommendation Guidance Certainty not assessed

    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.

    Applies to Maternal
    • 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.
    • Routine antenatal care, wherever it is given (facility or community).
    • Global; WHO writes the guideline for all settings.
    • Pregnancy
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable (recommendation context)
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    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
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (6)

    1. Supports WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Recommendation E.7, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101)
      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).
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

    2. Supports WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Recommendation E.7, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101), strength label
      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).
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

    3. Supports WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 1, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101)
      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).
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

    4. Supports WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 2, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101)
      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).
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

    5. Background WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Recommendation E.7, Remarks, bullet 3, PDF p. 119 (printed p. 101)
      How it applies
      WHO remarks on high-income country studies.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      338300b76172d410b91048209305fac53e1166c3be295a18b3f2c0c7c6b54182
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

    6. Background WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

      Guideline · World Health Organization · 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. · Published 2016-11-28 · ISBN: 978-92-4-154991-2

      Locator
      Overview
      How it applies
      WHO publication page: who the guideline is for.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      51b7d4a15d4c7f33497e210beea7b376c59e3544347b2adf65bab2c944dfcfdf
      Reuse basis
      The who.int page says: World Health Organization. Some rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The copyright page of the PDF itself says: All rights reserved, and the IRIS metadata has no licence field. The two statements disagree and are not reconciled, so public text is cite_only: the atlas states the recommendation in its own words with a citation and link. The PDF is not committed; only its sha256 is kept. Quote rows stay in the quote table as evidence for the reviewer.

Clinical links

Each link reports what one cited claim says about one population. "Evaluated for" means studied, not shown to work. These links do not show that anything is effective or right for you.

Record details

Record id
maternal:antenatal-care
Content hash
01bdbce0dd829ec4b586586950fdb26e427d14b0b8bfdb54aef8004e5274acdc