Within the continuum of reproductive health care, antenatal care (ANC) provides a platform for important healthcare functions, including health promotion, screening and diagnosis, and disease prevention. It has been established that, by implementing timely and appropriate evidence-based practices, ANC can save lives.

Endorsed, by the UN Secretary-General, this is a comprehensive WHO guideline on routine ANC for pregnant women and adolescent girls. It aims to complement existing WHO guidelines on the management of specific pregnancy-related complications. The guidance aims to capture the complex nature of the issues surrounding ANC health care practices and delivery, and to prioritize person-centred health and well-being, not only the prevention of death and morbidity, in accordance with a human rights-based approach.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Executive summary
• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Background
  • 1.2. Target audience
  • 1.3. Scope of the guideline
• 2. Methods
  • 2.1. WHO Steering Group
  • 2.2. Guideline Development Group (GDG)
  • 2.3. External Review Group (ERG)
  • 2.4. Technical Working Group (TWG)
  • 2.5. External partners and observers
  • 2.6. Identifying priority questions and outcomes
  • 2.7. ANC-related recommendations in other WHO guidelines
  • 2.8. Focus and approach
  • 2.9. Evidence identification and retrieval
  • 2.10. Quality assessment and grading of the evidence
  • 2.11. Formulation of the recommendations
  • 2.12. Decision-making during the GDG meetings
  • 2.13. Declaration of interests (DOI) by external contributors
  • 2.14. Document preparation and peer review
  • 2.15. Presentation of guideline content
• 3. Evidence and recommendations
  • A. Nutritional interventions
  • B. Maternal and fetal assessment
  • C. Preventive measures
  • D. Interventions for common physiological symptoms
  • E. Health systems interventions to improve the utilization and quality of ANC
• 4. Implementation of the ANC guideline and recommendations: introducing the 2016 WHO ANC model
• 5. Research implications
• 6. Dissemination, applicability and updating of the guideline and recommendations
  • 6.1. Dissemination
  • 6.2. Applicability issues
  • 6.3. Updating the guideline
• References
• Annex 1. External experts and WHO staff involved in the preparation of this guideline
• Annex 2. Other WHO guidelines with recommendations relevant to routine ANC
• Annex 3. Summary of declarations of interest from the Guideline Development Group (GDG) members and how they were managed
• Annex 4. Implementation considerations for ANC guideline recommendations
• Web annexes
  • Web annex 1. Priority questions and outcomes for the antenatal care (ANC) interventions identified for this guideline
  • Web annex 2. Changes from the approved scope of this guideline
  • Web annex 3. Guideline Development Group (GDG) judgements related to the recommendations
• Web supplement
  • Acronyms and abbreviations
  • A. Nutritional interventions
  • B. Maternal and fetal assessment
  • C. Preventive measures
  • D. Interventions for common physiological symptoms
  • E. Health systems interventions to improve antenatal care utilization and quality
  • Search strategies for the evidence base

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