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Home visits for pregnancy complications and management of antenatal care: an overview of three randomized controlled trials
Author(s) -
BLONDEL BEATRICE,
BREART GERARD
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
bjog: an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.157
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1471-0528
pISSN - 1470-0328
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1992.tb13723.x
Subject(s) - randomized controlled trial , medicine , pregnancy , obstetrics , surgery , biology , genetics
Objective To examine whether a policy of home visits reduces the amount of antenatal care provided by hospital maternity units. Design A meta‐analysis of three randomized controlled trials. Setting 9 maternity units in France. Subjects 1410 women with pregnancy complications. Intervention 1 or 2 home visits a week by a midwife. Main outcome measures Admission rate and length of stay in hospital. Results The home‐visiting system did not affect the hospital admission rate (typical odds ratio = 0.9; 95% CI = 0.7–1.2 ). In each trial, the length of hospital stay did not differ between the intervention and the control groups. Conclusions The home‐visiting system did not greatly alter the practice of antenatal hospital admission in the maternity units studied. The results question the way the health services were used and suggest that a better integration of hospital and home services is needed to make a more rational use of health care resources.