The World Health Organization recommends that all pregnant women receive at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits, and that the first such visit should be in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Health News : More than one in seven Indian women did not receive antenatal care during their last pregnancy–nearly half of them because their husband or family did not think it was necessary or did not allow it–according to the latest National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) data, highlighting the need to sensitise men about women’s rights to healthcare.
Antenatal care (ANC) constitutes healthcare for pregnant women to monitor for signs of complications, detect and treat hypertension and diabetes, provide iron and folic acid tablets and counsel on preventive care, diet during pregnancy, delivery care, postnatal care etc. ANC is provided by a skilled healthcare provider such as a doctor, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) or other health professionals.
Only 16.7% women in rural India received full antenatal care–at least four ANC visits, at least one tetanus toxoid injection, and iron and folic acid tablets or syrup taken for 100 or more days–about half as many as in urban areas (31.1%), NFHS-4 data show.
The World Health Organization recommends that all pregnant women receive at least four ANC visits, and that the first such visit should be in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The gendered nature of decision-making in Indian households also affects women’s healthcare seeking behavior.
One in four men whose wives did not receive ANC said they did not think it was necessary. One in five men said their family members did not think it was necessary while one in ten said the women themselves thought ANC to be unnecessary. Nearly one in four men said it was ‘too costly’.
A larger share of urban men and their families were more likely to think ANC was not necessary or to not permit the ANC, data show.
While this is intriguing and needs further study, a smaller proportion of deliveries in urban areas were in public facilities (46.2%) compared to rural areas (54.4%), suggesting that private health facilities may not be providing the right kind of pregnancy-related advice to couples.
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