Introduction: One of the important components of the Health Transformation Program (HTP), which came into force in 2003 in Turkey, was the practice of Family Physician (FP) (1). Based on this practice, FP units are expected to perform their pregnancy follow-ups in line with the 'Prenatal Care Management Guide (2)' created by the Ministry of Health (3). In fact, regular monitoring of pregnant women is considered to be a ‘performance indicator’ within the FP system (4).

Current Situation

Following the introduction of FP, studies were carried out to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate pregnancy monitoring services offered in primary health care. According to the studies, the rate of receiving antenatal care increased (5, 6), the rate of unmonitored pregnant women decreased (5, 6), and the number of timely and appropriate follow-ups increased according to the Ministry of Health protocols (5, 6). However, in the study conducted at a Community Health Center by Çatak et al. (7), according to the gestational week, 23.7% of the 15-24 weeks, 34.4% of the 25-32 weeks, and 52.1% of the 33-42 weeks were found not to be fully monitored. It was reported that 15.6% of women had their first follow-up at 15 weeks and later. It was found that 62.5% of women's height was never measured, 13% of the pregnant women's children's heart sound was never listened, 13.6% of pregnant women were not asked for blood tests, 49.9% of pregnant women were not asked for urine test, 80.8% of pregnant women were not asked for HBV antigen test. It was found that 41.8% of women who gave birth or in the last trimester had no birth plan and 15.5% of the same group were not given breastfeeding education (7). In a study conducted by Durusoy et al. (8), it was determined that 14% of the pregnant women did not know their FPs, 10% did not have a pregnancy record in the FP unit, and 15% were not monitored by the FP. It has been reported that 95% of the pregnant women whose pregnancies monitored by FP applied to FP themselves. Only 69% of the pregnant were detected on time, 49% were only monitored by midwives and only 3% were visited at home and 77% were called to the institution by telephone (8).

Conclusion: Despite the increase in the number of antenatal follow-ups in the FP system, the quality of the service is still insufficient. For this reason, health workers should be more sensitive about antenatal care services and should use the Ministry of Health monitoring guide more actively.

Keywords: HTP, FP, Pregnancy monitoring.