https://www.thebump.

com/a/prenatal-care-facts-
around-world

8 Surprising
Facts About
Prenatal Care
Around The
World
EYE-OPENING INFO ABOUT HOW MOMS-TO-BE EXPERIENCE THOSE NINE MONTHS IN
DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE GLOBE — SOME OF IT WEIRD AND SOME OF IT DOWNRIGHT
SCARY.

Prenatal care in the US follows a pretty standard formula: You give a urine sample,
Commented [JLG(1]: This method seems very
your doctor weighs and measures you, and you get a refill of your prenatal vitamins. impersonal.

Maybe you discuss what you’re eating, how you’re feeling and your plans for
the birth.

But this standard of care is uniquely American. In many countries, pregnant women
have fewer prenatal visits. In some poor countries, if you see a health care provider
Commented [JLG(2]: By this standard I will say that
_once _before giving birth, you’re among the lucky ones. And then there are cultural America is one of the top countries when it comes to
prenatal care.
differences with how health care is delivered and how pregnancy is viewed.

In Belgium, massages are prescribed

The goal of prenatal care is to keep mom and baby healthy. In Belgium, that includes
Commented [JLG(3]: Stress can lead to many
keeping mom ache-free and helping her stress less. “The doctors over here prescribe complications during pregnancy.

massages for moms-to-be,” says travel writer Sheridan Becker, who gave birth to both
of her children in Brussels, “and those massages are covered by European insurance
companies. Really.”

Commented [JLG(4]: Many times mothers – be- don’t

And as part of their care, women meet with a medical social worker who helps understand what the doctor is saying to them.

prepare them psychologically for the birth and the challenges of breastfeeding. She
might also attend the doctor’s visit to make sure the mom-to-be understands all of the
medical lingo and feels supported through her prenatal visit.

In Costa Rica, OBs have plenty of time

Cynthia Cendreda arrived in Costa Rica three weeks before her due date. Up until
then, her experience with her American ob-gyn had been methodical and efficient. So
when her Costa Rican doctor spent nearly two hours talking with her and her husband
about their medical history and birth plan, Cendreda was pleasantly surprised.

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“In the US, we waited an average of 20 minutes to see the doctor, and each time I was
largely examined by a nurse-practitioner,” says Cendreda. “When the doctor came in,
we spent just a few minutes with him — long enough for him to review my chart and
schedule another appointment. With my Costa Rican OB, we felt immense closeness
because he spent time with me. I don’t think there was any better reassurance that I
was in good hands.”

In France, pregnant women fear the scale

In the US, women of healthy weight are advised to gain between 25 and 35 pounds
during pregnancy. And while modest weight gain is better for mom and baby, few
American doctors would give the treatment mom Tamar McLachlan received while
she was pregnant in Paris.

“You’re not supposed to gain too much weight, and you’re reprimanded if you do,”
says McLachlan. “It’s almost as if you’re on a diet while pregnant. ‘Don’t eat pasta.
No, don’t eat that baguette.’ Because in Paris, how you look is critical. Breastfeeding
is even frowned upon, because it could ruin your figure.”

Around the world, many women are lucky to have just one prenatal visit

The average American woman will have around 15 prenatal visits during a normal 40-
week pregnancy. In much of the developing world, however, just getting one prenatal
visit is a success. Four is considered a victory.

“By the end of my pregnancy, I will have had over 18 prenatal appointments, whereas
the World Health Organization recommends only four prenatal visits,” says Kate
Mitchell, manager of the knowledge management system of the Maternal Health Task
Force for the Women and Health Initiative at The Harvard School of Public Health.
“And in the developing world, for pregnant women who actually get to those four
prenatal visits, that’s considered a huge success.”

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The World Health Organization reports that 81 percent of women in developing

countries have one prenatal visit, but only 36 percent have the recommended four
visits.
The visits may be fewer, but they’re long

In the developing world (which includes countries in Latin America, the Caribbean,
Africa and South Asia), health care providers try to cram a lot of information into
what might be, if they’re lucky, one of four visits a woman has during her pregnancy.
In Tanzania, a study showed that first prenatal visits lasted an average of 46 minutes,
with follow-up visits lasting more than a half hour. These visits are focused mostly on
educating women about warning signs of problems during pregnancy.

“During those visits, providers focus on tetanus vaccination and screening, treatment
of infections and screening for high blood pressure,” says Mitchell. “High blood
Commented [JLG(5]: *illness that can happen in the
pressure is really important because it’s an indicator of eclampsia and preeclampsia, womb due to the lack of prenatal care.

which is a major maternal issue. There’s also talk about malaria prevention, as well as
screening and treatment for HIV, because if you can intervene during the prenatal
period, then you can prevent mother-to-child transmission.”

“Birth plan” means different things in different places

Your birth plan might include your iPod playlist and whether you want an epidural.
In the third world, the planning process is quite different. Prenatal care includes
helping women decide whether they’ll deliver at home or at a hospital and what
they’ll do if there’s an emergency (especially in places where “dialing 911” isn’t an
option). If they want a hospital birth, how will they get there? And in places where
there is no health insurance or socialized medicine, women are also advised to set
aside money to pay for the birth and any unexpected emergencies, says Mitchell.

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Prenatal care saves moms

There are some scary scenarios that can be completely avoided. In Africa, an
estimated 25 percent of maternal deaths occur during pregnancy. As many as half of
Commented [JLG(6]: *high blood pressure
those deaths are due to hypertension and hemorrhage, conditions that could have been
treated with adequate prenatal care, according to the World Health Organization.

Prenatal care saves babies

With prenatal care, third-world moms are more likely to be vaccinated for tetanus, use
bed nets to prevent malaria, receive iron and folic acid to treat anemia and be treated
for syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases that can lead to stillbirth and
infant death.

Prenatal care is critically important to the well-being of both mom and baby. So each
time you try to breathe calmly while having your blood pressure taken or cringe
because you have to submit yet another urine sample, remember that these little things
are crucial to a healthy pregnancy — and that for many women, having access to this
type of care is a luxury.

Comments:

This article talks about the conditions that some women have to go through
while pregnant in the developing world. In European countries such as France and
Sweden there are several different cultural aspects of prenatal that are different than in
the USA. Swedish women are prescribed messages and have a medical social worker
so that they can understand what is being said. French women are concerned with
gaining weight. This can negatively affect the mother-to-be and the baby. The article
also touched on illness that are started in the womb and that are the results of poor
prenatal care. Such and hypertension.

This article will be helpful in this research paper because it touched on the
prenatal practices of other countries. This article also touches on illnesses that start in
the womb.