Are four prenatal visits enough?
Reanalysis of the World Health Organization’s Antenatal Care Trial (WHOACT) shows that there is an increased risk of fetal death at between 32 and 36 weeks for women who have a reduced prenatal care package. Original analysis of the WHOACT concluded that reducing prenatal visits of low risk women from eight to four was not detrimental to their or their babies’ health and could cut costs. Based on this advice some countries have lowered the number of routine prenatal visits . However, in light of the 2010 Cochrane review, which suggested that reduced prenatal visits was in fact detrimental to health, the WHOACT data was reanalyzed by an international group of researchers. Once the data was adjusted for maternal risk (such as smoking, age, education) the group found that there was an increased risk of fetal death for the women who had reduced numbers of prenatal visits.