Prenatal care
Also known as: antenatal care · pregnancy care
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Tailored Prenatal Care Delivery for Pregnant Individuals: ACOG Clinical Consensus No. 8
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) · 2025 · Clinical Consensus No. 8
An ACOG clinical consensus document that rethinks how routine prenatal care is delivered in the United States, moving away from the fixed visit schedule that had been standard for decades toward care tailored to each pregnant person's medical and social circumstances. Endorsed by several US maternity-care organisations including SMFM. Metadata record only; consult the source for the actual recommendations.
- Organised around three delivery-of-care domains: unmet social needs, prenatal visit frequency and monitoring, and use of telemedicine and alternative care modalities. source
- Published in Obstetrics & Gynecology 2025;145(5):565-577. source
- Framed by its authors as the first substantial revision of US prenatal care delivery models since they were first described in 1930. source
Antenatal care
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) · 2021 · NICE guideline NG201 (last updated December 2024)
The UK national guideline on routine antenatal care, covering how antenatal services should be organised, what checks and information should be offered at each contact, and how common problems in pregnancy should be handled. It applies to routine care rather than to specialist management of diagnosed complications. Metadata record only.
- Published 19 August 2021 and last updated 27 December 2024. source
- Replaces the earlier NICE antenatal care guideline CG62 (2008) and evidence summary ES20. source
- Scope is limited to routine care for all pregnant women; specialist care for underlying medical conditions or diagnosed obstetric complications is covered elsewhere. source
US vs EU key differences
- Visit-schedule structure differs: NICE prescribes a fixed course of 10 routine antenatal appointments for nulliparous women and 7 for parous women, whereas the 2025 ACOG consensus deliberately moves away from a fixed schedule toward visit frequency individualised to medical risk, social needs and patient preference. source
- The US consensus explicitly builds telemedicine and home monitoring into routine prenatal care as accepted delivery modalities; NICE NG201 does not set out remote antenatal appointments for the pregnant woman, mentioning remote attendance only for partners. source
- NICE sets an explicit negative recommendation against routine ultrasound after 28 weeks in uncomplicated singleton pregnancies, with routine scans confined to 11+2 to 14+1 and 18+0 to 20+6 weeks. source
- Version currency differs: the US guidance is a 2025 clinical consensus written to replace a care model largely unchanged since 1930, while the European guidance dates from 2021. source
What changed recently
- EUNICE guideline CG62 (March 2008) → NICE guideline NG201 (last updated December 2024)2024-12-27
NG201 updated and replaced the 2008 antenatal care guideline CG62 when it was published in August 2021, and also superseded evidence summary ES20. Revisions since then have been maintenance changes rather than new clinical recommendations, the December 2024 one adding a cross-reference to NICE's guideline on end of life care for adults.
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