[Effect of standard prenatal care protocol on the pregnancy outcome]

ABSTRACT

The new maternal health care program has been designed in order to improve the numerous weaknesses of the current national program. Standard protocol along with the methods of physicians' and midwifes' intervention is clearly defined in this programs. This pilot project has started in Ardestan district since 2003 and will continue until the midyear of 2005. This study was conducted to examine the efficacy and effectiveness of this program in terms of improving child birth and pregnancy indicators and solving related problems. This is an analytic [Hystorical cohort] study. Two groups of mothers who gave birth to their children after starting the program entered the study. Mothers who received current care and those who received care based on the new program were randomly selected. A checklist was complated for each subject using health files and hospital records. The aim was to examine the birth outcomes and relevant indicators. The collected date were analyed by SPSS software. The results of this study show that the frequencies of Caesarian section in two groups are th same. The frequency of L.B.W in the group who received new care services is lower than the other group. An improvement in the full term pregnancy indicator indicator in the first group was also observed. In case of stillbirth indicator, about one percent improvement was seen in the group who received new care. High preterm birth indicator is one of the most common problms in Iran. It shows the number of preterm and full term births with low birth weight imposing high costs to the families and the government. It seems that providing appropriate services using the new guidelines can be effective on improving child birth indicators specially in form of reducing the number of preterm child birth and stillbirth cases