Antenatal care policies for low-risk pregnant women in high-income countries with a universal health system: a scoping review protocol.

Abstract

The aim of this scoping review is to map the available evidence on the nature, extent, and range of antenatal care policies for low-risk pregnant women in high-income countries with a health system founded on the Beveridge Model. Low-risk women in high-income countries have good evolutionary perinatal outcomes but high intervention rates in pregnancy and childbirth, which ultimately leads to high morbidity. This has implications at all levels including families, the health care system, and society. This review aims to inform future policy and identify the viability of the adoption of alternative models to the Portuguese context that can reduce unnecessary interventions. Studies, protocols, guidelines, and policies that provide guidance on antenatal care for low-risk pregnant women in high-income countries with a health system founded on the Beveridge Model (universal health care) will be considered. Documents from 2005 to present will be included, and no language restrictions will be imposed. An initial search will be conducted in databases including MEDLINE (via PubMed) and CINAHL (via EBSCOhost), followed by a manual search of the reference lists from the documents accepted for inclusion, and a hand search of gray literature. For the countries whose policies are not available through the earlier steps, key persons from health ministries and academia will be contacted. Search results will be exported and data extracted using charting forms. Data will be synthesized using narrative description.