Antenatal Care Guidelines

Ministry of health, Community Development, Gender and Children,, The URT Antenatal Care Guidelines. Ministry of health, Community Development, Gender and Children., Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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Abstract

The Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC), through its Reproductive and Child Health Section, strives to ensure equitable provision of comprehensive reproductive, childbirth, and child health services along the continuum of care to all of its citizens. Much of the emphasis is on improving the health status of women and children. This antenatal care (ANC) guideline was developed with the overall aim of providing high-quality ANC to women and their partners/families based on equity and human rights approaches. It is designed to be used by supervisors, managers, health care providers, and all taking care of pregnant women in Tanzania. This guideline is based on the 2016 World Health Organization ANC model, where a minimum of eight contacts is recommended for a positive pregnancy experience. Among the new recommendations are: • Nutritional interventions: All pregnant women should be counselled on healthy eating and physical exercise for a healthy pregnancy. They should receive iron and folic acid supplementation, and calcium supplementation where required, restrict caffeine intake, and regulate alcohol consumption. • Maternal and foetal assessment: All pregnant women should be screened for anaemia, gender-based violence, gestational diabetes mellitus, tobacco use, substance use, HIV, syphilis, malaria, and TB. One ultrasound scan should be done at 20 weeks gestation if there is no indication that an earlier or later ultrasound scan is needed. • Preventive measures: The following should be instituted for women diagnosed as Rhesusnegative who give birth to Rhesus-positive newborns: antihelminthic drugs, tetanus toxoid, and intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy should be given to all women, and HIV treatment should be given to all HIV-positive pregnant women. • Interventions for common physiological conditions, including nausea and vomiting, heartburn, leg cramps, lower back and pelvic pain, oedema, and varicose veins • Health systems strengthening to improve quality and utilisation of ANC services, such as women-held case notes, community-based interventions to improve communication and support, task shifting, recruitment and retention of staff in rural and remote areas, and the ANC contact schedule Additional chapters on infection prevention control on counselling will also help to remind the reader of the best practices for a good pregnancy outcome. The current guidelines will serve as the main document on ANC for pregnant women in Tanzania mainland. These guidelines are expected to solve the existing challenges in provision of ANC services, resulting in improved maternal and perinatal outcomes.

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