Abstract
Data from the Medical Birth Registry of the National Board of Health and Welfare for the years 1979–83 were studied. Comparison was made between women from one area, where the district midwife and the district physician were in charge of the antenatal care, and another area, where it was the district midwife and the obstetrician who were primarily responsible for the antenatal care. All births included in the analysis took place in the same maternity department, the numbers of births in the two areas being 3,861 and 3,041, respectively. The study was unable to reveal any difference in the outcome of pregnancy between the two areas. Thus, antenatal care led primarily by the district physician (referring complicated pregnancies to the obstetrician) seemed to be just as satisfactory as that led primarily by the obstetrician. A greater proportion of women in the latter group had ‘abnormal’ deliveries, for which there was no apparent cause.
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