CEMACH considered this important area of maternity care as a potential topic for a national confidential enquiry. To assist in deciding whether this would be a beneficial area for enquiry, CEMACH commissioned a literature review of barriers to access to antenatal care and the phenomenon of late attendance and non-attendance for care, for women in developed countries.
The review identified that there was a lack of existing documented standards for improving access to antenatal care and an insufficient evidence base for the development of consensus based standards. The review recommended further research into effective interventions for the improvement of access to antenatal care by groups experiencing barriers to care. The conclusion was that until there was a greater evidence base on effective interventions to overcome barriers to antenatal care, there was a considerable risk that a study using the national confidential enquiry approach would yield superficial results. It has therefore been decided to defer further consideration of access to antenatal care as an enquiry topic. We are nonetheless making the literature review available for the contribution it makes in this important area. |