In its recent antenatal care (ANC) recommendations for a positive pregnancy experience, the World Health Organization called for innovative, evidence-based approaches to ensure equitable, high quality, women-centered ANC for all. In high-income countries, group ANC is a service delivery innovation that has demonstrated potential for improving utilization of care, perinatal health outcomes and women’s pregnancy experiences.
Traditional ANC generally consists of short, one-on-one meetings between a clinician and a pregnant woman, often with a one-way flow of information and a narrow focus on physical assessment. In contrast, group ANC brings together a group of pregnant women of similar gestational age and supplements their clinical care with group learning and peer support, ultimately fostering deeper relationships, enhancing women’s knowledge and encouraging self-care. The group care model’s success in high-income countries suggests that group ANC could be adapted to improve care outcomes and experiences for women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as well.
The Maternal Health Task Force conducted qualitative research with women and health care providers in an urban setting in India to explore the acceptability and feasibility of an adapted group ANC model in that context. This formative research project yielded two primary outputs:
- A model of group ANC adapted specifically for use in LMICs. The model is informed by a systematic review of the published literature and a series of key informant interviews with researchers currently testing or implementing group ANC in LMICs.
- The results of a feasibility study conducted in partnership with the Vadodara-based firm Centre for Operations Research and Training (CORT) in three health care settings in urban Vadodara, India. During the study, health care providers and pregnant women had the opportunity to experience a group ANC session and give feedback through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and a written survey.
Read the published papers resulting from this study:
Exploring perceptions of group antenatal care in Urban India: Results of a feasibility study
Reproductive Health | April 2018
Group antenatal care models in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic evidence synthesis
Reproductive Health | February 2018
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