Antenatal Care in General Practice in Sweden: II. A Study of Work Allocation between District Physician and Obstetrician

Abstract

In this study, 143 women were carefully observed throughout their pregnancy. The population was an all-inclusive material from a well-defined geographical area. Altogether 688 visits to the physician and 1504 visits to the midwife were registered. At the district antenatal clinic about 80% of the mothers could be helped by the district midwife and the district physician. About 10% required some specialist attention, while the remaining 10% required attention at the hospital antenatal clinic. The district physician dealt with 62% of the obstetric problems and 75% of the non-obstetric problems. The cases referred to the hospital antenatal clinic (20%) had a high proportion of complications, e.g. 54% of the caesarean sections and 43% of the babies sent to the neonatal clinic.

Key Words:

• prenatal care
• pregnancy complications
• primary health care
• referral and consultation