Group Antenatal Care
What is group antenatal care
In the Group Antenatal Care (GANC) service delivery model, women join peer groups designed to provide all routine ANC services. Group antenatal care is built on three key objectives:
Conduct clinical assessment and treatment
Use a model of participatory facilitated learning
Build and rely on peer support
Key principles of GANC include:
Having a plan and purpose for each session while remaining responsive to group interests
Capitalizing on group processes that use nonhierarchical, client-centered, participatory methods
Planning for stability of group members and facilitators (ANC providers)
Providing the widest range of care possible within the group setting
Promoting empowerment, self-efficacy, reflection, and planned action through specific activities, e.g., clinical self-assessment and activities designed to improve health literacy
Promoting peer-to-peer learning, support, group identity, and cohesion
WHO | Health systems interventions to improve the utilization and quality of antenatal care
“Group antenatal care provided by qualified health-care professionals may be offered as an alternative to individual antenatal care for pregnant women in the context of rigorous research, depending on a woman’s preferences and provided that the infrastructure and resources for delivery of group antenatal care are available.”
GANC Collaborative research prioritization
The Collaborative recommends that future GANC research aligns indicator definitions with global standards for antenatal care. Additionally, research should consider process and contextual factors as well as outcome indicators that address the content, quality, and impact of care:
Context-specific maternal and neonatal outcomes;
Quality of care, including the provision and experience of care
Uptake of healthy behaviors and increased health literacy and self-efficacy;
Health service utilization, e.g., facility-based delivery, ANC and postnatal care attendance, and family planning uptake; and
In addition to the domains listed above, the policy implications, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability of GANC models, future analyses should aim to disentangle confounders, mediators, and effect modifiers of this service delivery model.