Case records and commentaries for the examination of mastership of medicine in obstetrics and gynaecology

Abstract

The Government of Kenya has incorporated antenatal care into care for some years now. While regular evaluation services is essential, this has not been quite adequately partly because antenatal data collection" system whict the birth register-, holds inadequate information. In the birth register has been suggested as a useful tool for lIonitoring childhood mor-tality. The immediate objective of this study was to introduce a modifiec r-egister with extra-infor-mation on quantitative pattern of antenatal car-e (ANC) ser-vices utilization. It also contains additiona: calculating infant mortality. The ultimate objective was maternity care providers, health planner-s and policy makers ith an infor-mation system that will enable regular evaluation of AN( and monitoring of early childhood survival. The study was conduc ted between January and Marc h 1989, at the General Hospital Maternity Unit in Mombasa. Twelve hundr-ed and deliveries were recorded during the study period. The majority of the women (491.) booked antenatal clinic in the half of the second trimester and attended a total of 4 times attend ANCat all. Non attenders had a four-fold increase mortality compared to those who attended. Complications or risk factors during pregnancy were noted in abou of all the women, wi thpremature labour" being the most common.