Group Prenatal Care Versus Individual Prenatal Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses

Facilitators and barriers to quality of care in maternal, newborn and child health: a global situational analysis through metareview

“…The WHO's framework of organisational management strategies to improve QoC does not emphasise interpersonal communication as a specific strategy for improving QoC. However, issues related to ‘communication’ were highlighted in several studies 23 24 35 36. Furthermore, a systematic review of interventions to improve communication between health professionals and pregnant women during maternity care suggested that improved interpersonal communication could increase acceptability and satisfaction,30 but its AMSTAR score was <3 and thus ranked low in methodological quality.…”

“…Barriers to patient and population engagement were lack of health literacy, knowledge and awareness about health services,25 29 35 36 46–50 lack of opportunity for shared decision-making38 and lack of trust and confidence in the healthcare providers 37. In addition, users’ and community's perception of quality of healthcare20 47 and their past experiences,25 lack of effective interpersonal communication23 24 37 38 43 51 and poor relationship between providers and users38 52 were other important barriers.…”

“…Several systematic reviews included in this metareview reported users’ satisfaction with healthcare as key to their engagement22 28 34 36 40 42 45 50 54–67 and thus merited an independent domain. The included systematic reviews highlight the problem of health systems not eliciting information about users’ perception of care with regard to the provision and costs of healthcare as well as lack of standard tools to measure patient satisfaction.…”

“…Health professionals were less effective than a trained doula or childbirth educator or a family member mainly because the health professionals, who had to balance their hospital duties along with provision of support, were unable to provide continuous undivided attention to women 64. Furthermore, two systematic reviews that analysed the effect of a group model antenatal care compared with conventional one-on-one care found the group model to improve women's knowledge and satisfaction, but there was no evidence of the effect on health outcomes and provider satisfaction 36 65. Although internet-based interventions to support successful breastfeeding were reported to be beneficial in terms of round-the-clock availability of support, time and travel savings for users, these were not found to have a significant effect on breastfeeding outcomes 98.…”

Group versus Individual Professional Antenatal Breastfeeding Education for Extending Breastfeeding Duration and Exclusivity

“…21 Based on that review, 1 randomized study favored group education and 1 cohort study showed no significant difference in extending mean breastfeeding duration. 21 The purpose of this review was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of group and individual antenatal professional education on breastfeeding exclusivity and duration. Determining the effectiveness of antenatal education in promoting breastfeeding duration and exclusivity is important as many new mothers report that they are largely unprepared for their early breastfeeding experiences.…”