ANTENATAL CARDS - WHAT SHOULD THEY CONTAIN

An antenatal card should be designed to facilitate the early detection of important and clearly defined conditions, which in turn can result in well-defined and beneficial actions. The home-based antenatal card is a good instrument for having relevant information accessible at va rious antenatal visits, and also for transmitting the information to t he delivery staff. If properly designed, it could also serve as an imp ortant means to assess epidemiological characteristics of the pregnant population, necessary for deciding priorities in a public health pers pective. A cross-sectional study of nomen giving birth in Leon, Nicara gua, showed that the majority of the women could be classified as high -risk pregnancies. The present paper discusses the design of the Nicar aguan antenatal card, as well as its risk factors. A revision of the a ntenatal card and the accompanying manual is suggested, particularly w ith regard to the definitions of the high-risk criteria and the propos ed action.