Advocating the new WHO antenatal care model in a free maternity care setting in a developing country.

In a free maternity care setting the number of antenatal clients can be overwhelming for the obstetric staff. Using the World Health Organization (WHO) classifying form, most of the women can be triaged for the basic component of the new WHO antenatal care model. Our aim was to evaluate the risk status of pregnant women in a tertiary health institution providing free maternity care in Nigeria. We interviewed 1022 randomly selected clients using the WHO classifying form at our booking clinic over a 12-month period. The analysis was performed using the epi info statistical program. Seven hundred and sixty-five clients (74.9%) were found eligible for the basic component of the new antenatal care model. The associated risk in pregnancy increased with increasing parity. The basic component of the new WHO antenatal care model can safely be implemented in centres such as ours.