title: Prenatal care in primary health care centers of Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia.
abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the performance of Al Hassa primary health care (PHC) centers in the scope of prenatal care and to have a baseline data for future evaluation of achievement in that field. A retrospective study was done by collecting information on a pre-designed form from the available records in the PHC centers. The number of registered pregnant ladies for prenatal care in PHC centers was 10,594 which was equal to 58% of the estimated number of pregnant ladies in Al-Hassa, in 1409 H (the official calendar of Saudi Arabia corresponding to 1989). The immunization coverage by tetanus toxoid of the registered pregnant ladies was 66.7% for the first dose and 40.3% for the second dose. Forty six percent of the registered pregnancies was identified by PHC staff as high risk pregnancy. It was found that 64.4% of the high risk pregnancy was due to causes in the reproductive history, 25.4% due to associated medical conditions and 7.2% due to causes in the present pregnancy. A self criticism and future need to improve prenatal services are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Ain Shams University, Egypt.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: al Teheawy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia