• Bettercare
  • Primary Maternal Care
← Menu

We have taken every care to ensure that drug dosages and related medical advice in this book are accurate. However, drug and disinfectant dosages can change and are updated often, so always double-check dosages and procedures against a reliable, up-to-date formulary and the given drug’s documentation before administering it.

Primary Maternal Care: Antenatal and postnatal care in the clinic

First published in 2009 by Bettercare. Updated December 2009, August 2011 (layout only), August 2014, February 2015 (layout), June 2017 (significant changes). This version produced on 26 February 2025.

Text © Perinatal Education Trust 2009

Illustrations by Anne Westoby

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-920218-43-0
ISBN (international paperback edition): 978-1-717898-35-7 ISBN (reflowable ebook): 978-1-928313-07-6

Excluding content explicitly credited to others, this book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.

This licence means you may share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • Non-Commercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • No Derivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

For any other uses, please contact Bettercare www.bettercare.co.za.

← Title page
Contents →
Bettercare
Bookmarks
    Tap or select text, and then tap the bookmark icon to save a bookmark. Bookmarks are saved in your browser cache. Clearing your cache will remove them.
    Your last visit
      The last time you visited, you stopped reading here.
      Close
      • Twitter
      • Facebook
      • LinkedIn
      • WhatsApp
      • Reddit
      • Email
      • Link
      1. Home
      1. How to use our books
      2. Buy printed books
      3. About Bettercare
      4. FAQs
      5. Contact us
      1. Acknowledgements
      2. Introduction
        1. About Bettercare
        2. Why decentralised learning?
        3. Free Bettercare Online Learning Platform
        4. Learning programmes
        5. Format of the courses
        6. Contributors
        7. Updating the course material
        8. Contact information
        9. Registration
      3. 1 Antenatal care
        1. Objectives
        2. Goals of good antenatal care
        3. Diagnosing pregnancy
        4. The first antenatal visit
        5. Determining the duration of pregnancy
        6. Side-room and special screening investigations
        7. The second antenatal visit
        8. Assessing the results of the special screening investigations
        9. Grading the risk
        10. Subsequent visits
        11. The visit at 28 weeks
        12. The visit at 34 weeks
        13. The visit at 41 weeks
        14. Managing women with HIV infection
        15. Case studies
      4. 1a Skills: General examination at the first antenatal visit
        1. Objectives
        2. History taking
        3. Examination of the patient
        4. Testing the patient’s urine
        5. Doing a pregnancy test
      5. 1b Skills: Examination of the abdomen in pregnancy
        1. Objectives
        2. General examination of the abdomen
        3. Examination of the uterus and the fetus
      6. 1c Skills: Vaginal examination in pregnancy
        1. Objectives
        2. Indications for a vaginal examination
        3. Method of vaginal examination
      7. 1d Skills: Screening tests for syphilis
        1. Objectives
        2. Syphilis screening
        3. Syphilis rapid test
      8. 1e Skills: Screening tests for HIV
        1. Objectives
        2. HIV screening
      9. 1f Skills: Examination of the breasts
        1. Objectives
        2. History taking
        3. Examination of the breasts
      10. 2 Assessment of fetal growth and condition during pregnancy
        1. Objectives
        2. Introduction
        3. Fetal growth
        4. Fetal movements
        5. Antenatal fetal heart rate monitoring
        6. Case studies
      11. 2a Skills: Routine use of the antenatal card
        1. Objectives
      12. 3 Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
        1. Objectives
        2. The hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
        3. The classification of hypertension during pregnancy
        4. Pre-eclampsia
        5. Patients at increased risk of pre-eclampsia
        6. The management of pre-eclampsia
        7. The emergency management of severe pre-eclampsia and imminent eclampsia
        8. The management of eclampsia
        9. The further management of severe pre-eclampsia and imminent eclampsia at the referral hospital
        10. Gestational hypertension
        11. Chronic hypertension
        12. Postpartum hypertension
        13. Case studies
      13. 3a Skills: Measuring blood pressure and proteinuria
        1. Objectives
        2. Measuring blood pressure
        3. Measuring proteinuria
      14. 4 Antepartum haemorrhage
        1. Objectives
        2. Antepartum haemorrhage
        3. The initial emergency management of antepartum haemorrhage
        4. Diagnosing the cause of the bleeding
        5. Antepartum bleeding caused by abruptio placentae
        6. Antepartum bleeding caused by placenta praevia
        7. Antepartum haemorrhage of unknown cause
        8. Referral of a patient with an antepartum haemorrhage
        9. A blood-stained vaginal discharge
        10. Case studies
      15. 5 Preterm labour and preterm rupture of the membranes
        1. Objectives
        2. Preterm labour and preterm rupture of the membranes
        3. Diagnosis of preterm labour and preterm rupture of the membranes
        4. Management of preterm labour
        5. Management of preterm rupture of the membranes
        6. Prelabour rupture of the membranes
        7. Case studies
      16. 6 The puerperium and family planning
        1. Objectives
        2. The puerperium
        3. Management of the puerperium
        4. The 6 week postnatal visit
        5. Puerperal pyrexia
        6. Genital tract infection
        7. Urinary tract infection
        8. Thrombophlebitis
        9. Respiratory tract infection
        10. Puerperal psychiatric disorders
        11. Secondary postpartum haemorrhage
        12. Self-monitoring
        13. HIV positive mothers
        14. Family planning in the puerperium
        15. Case studies
      17. 7 Medical problems during pregnancy, labour and the puerperium
        1. Objectives
        2. Urinary tract infection during pregnancy
        3. Anaemia in pregnancy
        4. Heart valve disease in pregnancy and the puerperium
        5. Diabetes mellitus in pregnancy
        6. Case studies
      18. Appendix
        1. Guidelines for the management of patients with risk factors and medical problems during pregnancy, labour and the puerperium
        2. BMI table
      1. How to use our books
      2. Buy printed books
      3. About Bettercare
      4. FAQs
      5. Contact us

      Managed by Electric Book Works

      Buy books

      Did you know? Training and learning can be easier on paper. Buy our books now, or order in bulk at low cost.

      Find out more