Acceptability and Sustainability of the WHO Focused Antenatal Care package in Kenya

To promote the health and survival of mothers and babies, Kenya has adapted the WHO goal-oriented Antenatal Care (ANC) package, popularly known as focused ANC (FANC). The Ministry of Health (MOH) has designed new guidelines for ANC services, placing emphasis on refocusing antenatal care, birth planning and emergency preparedness, and the identification, prevention and management of life threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth. ANC visits are now used as an entry point for a range of other services, thus promoting comprehensive integrated service delivery. A major challenge, however, is whether the Kenyan health care system can cope with the implementation of this package. The objectives of this study were to assess the MOH’ s capacity to adapt focused ANC at the service delivery level so that it can be sustained, and to examine the extent to which adaptation of the package has increased coverage and quality of key ANC services and the overall quality of care received by pregnant women. [author’s description]