[Evaluation of prenatal care in Belgium and comparison between public and private medical sectors].

The Belgian health system imposes no regulations regarding antenatal care. A special study was carried out by questionnaire in a sample of 32 maternity units representative of the French-speaking region to determine the coverage rate achieved by the health system. The study also compared the private and public sectors for rate of use, socioeconomic profile of users and regularity of antenatal care. Overall results show that despite the generosity of the system, a utilization rate of 98.8%, and a coverage rate of 84%, are reached. Public and private sector attendance is comparable but their respective populations are different. Regularity of antenatal care varies considerably between the two sectors. The public sector performs better in this regard, especially when it is endowed with medico-public health teams. The results suggest that the regularity of antenatal care is a better indicator of the quality of services than of their accessibility.