Effect of standardizing prenatal care protocol on pregnancy outcome

BACKGROUND: The new maternal health care program has been designed in order to improve the quality of the current national program. Standard protocol along with the methods of physicians' and midwives' intervention clearly defined in this program. This study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of this program in terms of improving child birth, pregnancy indicators and solving related problems. METHODS: The historical cohort study started in Ardestan since 2003 and continued until the midyear of 2005. Mothers who labored were randomly selected and categorized in two groups who received care based on the new program and who didn't receive care. A checklist was prepared for each subject using health files and hospital records. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software. RESULTS: The results showed that the frequency of caesarian section in two groups was the same. The frequency of L.B.W in group who received new care services was lower than the other group. Pregnancy age indicator at the time of delivery to determine the frequency of full term birth was promoted in first group. In case of stillbirth indicator, some improvements were seen in group who received new cares. CONCLUSIONS: Preterm labor is one of the most prevalent problems in society resulted in immaturity and low weighted infants and high costs for families and government. Presenting compiled cares and providing appropriate services using the new guidelines can be effective to improve child birth indicators especially in reducing the number of preterm and still births.