Training Manual for Preventive Malaria - Ministry of Health

2a.1: FOCUSED ANTENATAL CARE
Focused ANC is an individualized, client-centred, comprehensive ante-natal care and emphasizes
on disease detection rather than risk assessment.
2a.2: GOALS OF FOCUSED ANC
Focused antenatal care visits concentrate on interventions aimed at the following goals:
• Detection and prevention of complications that might affect a woman's pregnancy
• Counselling and health promotion to encourage good health throughout pregnancy and to
increase a woman's ability to identify possible problems
• Preparation for birth and possible complications
Focused ANC:
• Emphasizes quality of visits over quantity of visits and recognizes that frequent visits do
not necessarily improve pregnancy outcomes.
• Realises that the previous concept of dividing pregnancies into “high risk” and “low
risk” does not hold because every pregnant woman is at risk of complications and
should, therefore, receive the same basic care—including monitoring of complications.
• Relies on evidence-based, goal-directed interventions that are appropriate to the
gestational age of the pregnancy, and specifically address the most prevalent health
issues affecting women and newborns. In areas with a high prevalence of malaria, such
interventions include the detection, prevention, and treatment of malaria and its
complications.
• Emphasises that care is given by skilled healthcare providers—that is, midwives,
doctors or other qualified healthcare providers who have the knowledge, skills, and
attitudes required to work effectively toward accomplishing the goals of ANC, as
described below.
2A.2A:EARLY DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF COMPLICATIONS
Although most pregnancies are normal, an important goal of focused ANC is the early
detection and prevention of complications pregnancy. Focused ANC promotes targeted
assessment, during which the skilled provider takes history, examines and carries out relevant
investigations. .
Focused ANC promotes the implementation of safe, simple, and cost-effective interventions.
Screening for symptoms and signs of malaria is a routine part of focused antenatal
Care. In addition the following are also ensured;
Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) with Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP)
Tetanol toxoid immunization to prevent tetanus
Iron/Folate supplementation to prevent anaemia.
Presumptive treatment for hookworm infestation
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