Antenatal care in high-risk pregnancies.

A retrospective analysis of the antenatal records of women who gave birth to live babies was conducted in the three Districts of the East Sussex Health Area in 1977. A high-risk group was identified and the antenatal care for them was compared with that given to mothers in general. Comparison was also made between Districts. Women in the high-risk group were similar to those in the general group with respect to the number of antenatal visits. Overall this was also found with respect to when the last visit was made, but there were differences among those with short or long gestations. Pregnant women at high risk were more likely to be supervised by the hospital team exclusively during the antenatal period than those in the general group. Maternal characteristics which might have been used to identify high-risk pregnancies were often not recorded. High-risk mothers more frequently had infants with Apgar scores of less than 5 at one minute and birth weights of 2500 g or less than did women in the general group. However, it would appear that District policy on health care varied significantly since various aspects of care were found to be more dependent on the District concerned than on the risk group involved.