title: Antenatal care for healthy pregnant women: a mapping of interventions from existing guidelines to inform the development of new WHO guidance on antenatal care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of updating antenatal care (ANC) guidelines.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To map the existing clinical practice guidelines related to routine ANC for healthy women and to summarise all practices considered during routine ANC.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic search in four databases for all clinical practice guidelines published after January 2000.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two researchers independently assessed the list of potentially eligible publications.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information on scope of the guideline, type of practice, associated gestational age, recommendation type and the source of evidence were mapped.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1866 references, we identified 85 guidelines focusing on the ANC period: 15 pertaining to routine ANC and 70 pertaining to specific situations. A total of 135 interventions from routine ANC guidelines were extracted, and categorised as clinical interventions (n = 80), screening/diagnostic procedures (n = 47) and health systems related (n = 8). Screening interventions, (syphilis, anaemia) were the most common practices. Within the 70 specific situation guidelines, 102 recommendations were identified. Overall, for 33 (out of 171) interventions there were conflicting recommendations provided by the different guidelines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mapping the current guidelines including practices related to routine ANC informed the scoping phase for the WHO guideline for ANC. Our analysis indicates that guideline development processes may lead to different recommendations, due to context, evidence base or assessment of evidence. It would be useful for guideline developers to map and refer to other similar guidelines and, where relevant, explore the discrepancies in recommendations and others.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified existing ANC guidelines and mapped scope, practices, recommendations and source of evidence.
authors.affiliation: Centro Rosarinos de Estudios Perinatales (CREP), Rosario, Argentina.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abalos
authors.affiliation: Centro Rosarinos de Estudios Perinatales (CREP), Rosario, Argentina.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chamillard
authors.affiliation: Centro Rosarinos de Estudios Perinatales (CREP), Rosario, Argentina.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Health and Research including UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ӧ
authors.initials: Ӧ
authors.lastname: Tuncalp
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Health and Research including UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gülmezoglu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D016730:Program Development; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013590:Syphilis, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D014944:World Health Organization
keywords: Antenatal care; World Health Organization; guidelines; pregnancy; routine care