Quality assessment of antenatal care home-based records of urban women

Abstract

Objective  To evaluate the antenatal care (ANC) home-based records of puerperal women attended in public and private maternity hospitals.

Methods  Cross-sectional study that analyzed photographs of 394 ANC home-based records of women who participated in the research Nascer em Belo Horizonte (Born in Belo Horizonte, in free translation). Records were assessed regarding completeness, legibility and completeness of sociodemographic, clinical, obstetric and laboratory data.

Results  88.5% of the cards had no record of the name of the primary care unit of reference, 76.9% of the maternity of reference and 82.4% of the ANC institution. Evaluation of edema, use of ferrous sulfate and folic acid were not registered in 55%, 91.1% and 92.6% of the cards, respectively. The absence of records in the weight chart was identified in 86.8% of the cards, and in the uterine height chart, 79.7%.

Conclusions and implications for practice  There are large gaps in the registration of the ANC process in the home-based records, which may compromise the quality of care and follow-up of pregnant women. The findings point to the need for permanent education in service directed to health professionals, such as nurses, regarding the importance of carrying out and registering the actions recommended in ANC.

Keywords:  Antenatal Care; Records; Primary Health Care; Nurses; Women’s Health