WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

may help to address inequalities. However, when
engaging men, it is important to consider women’s
preferences, as including male partners could also
have a negative effect for women who would prefer to
discuss pregnancy-related and other matters without
their partner’s involvement.
Acceptability
Qualitative evidence suggests that women in a
variety of settings and contexts readily engage with
interventions designed to increase communication and
support, provided they are delivered in a caring and
respectful manner (high confidence in the evidence)
(22). The use of women’s groups is likely to fulfil two
key requirements of ANC from a woman’s perspective
– the opportunity to receive and share relevant
information and the opportunity to develop supportive
relationships with other women and health-care
providers (high confidence in the evidence). Evidence
from women and providers in LMICs also highlighted
the importance of active community engagement
in the design and delivery of informational-based
services, especially in communities where traditional
beliefs may differ from conventional understandings
(moderate confidence in the evidence). Qualitative
evidence from providers suggests that there is a
willingness to supply pregnancy-related information
and offer psychological/emotional support to women
provided that resources are available (high confidence
in the evidence) and the services are delivered in
a coordinated, organized manner with appropriate
managerial support (moderate confidence in the
evidence) (45).
Feasibility
Qualitative evidence suggests that, where health-care
providers are involved in facilitating women’s groups,
they may need additional training to help with the
facilitative components and this may be a barrier
in some resource-poor settings (high confidence in
the evidence). Similarly, the extra costs associated
with home visits in terms of additional staff and
extra resources may limit implementation in some
LMICs (high confidence in the evidence) (45). It has
been suggested that community-based interventions
introduced through existing public sector health
workers and local health systems may be more
feasible and more likely to succeed than projectbased
interventions (200).
<strong>WHO</strong> <strong>recommendations</strong> on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience
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