WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience

Additional considerations
• nHigh-certainty evidence from the review also
shows that low gestational weight gain is more
likely to occur with these interventions (11 trials,
4422 women; RR: 1.14, CI: 1.02–1.27); the clinical
relevance of this finding is not known.
• nThe effects, acceptability and feasibility of diet
and exercise interventions in LMICs has not been
established.
Values
Please see “Women’s values” in section 3.A:
Background (p. 15).
Resources
Cost implications of diet and exercise interventions
for health services are highly variable. For example,
supervised diet and exercise interventions can
have high associated costs, mainly due to staff
costs for time spent supervising, while counselling
interventions might have relatively low costs. For
pregnant women, the interventions might also have
resource implications in terms of transport costs,
time off work and child-minding costs, particularly if
the intervention requires additional antenatal visits.
Equity
Most of the evidence came from trials conducted
in HICs. Recent studies have reported a shift
in the burden of overweight and obesity from
advantaged to disadvantaged populations (32). Such
a trend increases the risk of associated pregnancy
complications, as well as cardiometabolic problems,
among pregnant women from disadvantaged
populations. These risks might be further exacerbated
among women in low-resource community settings,
as these settings may not be equipped to deal with
complications.
Acceptability
Qualitative evidence indicates that women in a
variety of settings tend to view ANC as a source
of knowledge and information and that they
generally appreciate any advice (including dietary
or nutritional) that may lead to a healthy baby and
a positive pregnancy experience (high confidence in
the evidence) (22). It also suggests that women may
be less likely to engage with health services if advice
is delivered in a hurried or didactic manner (high
confidence in the evidence) (22). Therefore, these
types of interventions are more likely to be acceptable
if the interventions are delivered in an unhurried
and supportive way, which may also facilitate better
engagement with ANC services. Qualitative evidence
on health-care providers’ views of ANC suggests
that they may be keen to offer general health-care
advice and specific pregnancy-related information
(low confidence in the evidence) but they sometimes
feel they do not have the appropriate training and
lack the resources and time to deliver the service in
the informative, supportive and caring manner that
women want (high confidence in the evidence) (45).
Feasibility
In a number of LMIC settings, providers feel that
a lack of resources may limit implementation of
recommended interventions (high confidence in the
evidence) (45).
Chapter 3. Evidence and <strong>recommendations</strong> 17