Does antenatal care in developing countries prevent eclampsia? A retrospective analysis at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, South Africa

Objective: Assess the quality of antenatal care in eclamptic patients. Methods: The medical records of all eclamptic patients in 1993 were reviewed. The place of booking for antenatal care, frequency of attendance, and failure in treatment of disorders in pregnancy related to the maternal and fetal outcome were studied retrospectively. Results: 176 of 251 eclamptic women had some form of antenatal care; 33.8% attended only once or twice and substandard care was identified in 27.8%. The number of maternal and fetal deaths was twice as high in unbooked as in booked patients. Conclusions: Further improvement of antenatal service may help to decrease the maternal and fetal mortality but it cannot prevent all eclamptic seizures. Future studies should pay attention to the early prediction of eclampsia and provide patients ''at risk'' with closer antenatal surveillance.