PIP: Prenatal care aims to preserve the health of the fetus and mother. It screens for indications of illness or pregnancy-related complications and tries to prevent them from becoming emergencies. Sufficient referral services are needed for prenatal screening to be effective. Women and their families must be motivated to go to them promptly. Often prenatal care is the first time women receive any medical care. Thus, quality care is imperative so women will again request medical care when necessary. Prenatal care providers must ask women about signs and symptoms of placenta previa and placental abruptio. They should also tell them about the gravity of hemorrhaging in late pregnancy. Referral facilities must have operative capabilities and be able to provide adequate transfusion to treat severe hemorrhage. Health workers must prevent and treat anemia in pregnant women to improve their chances of recovery from blood loss; they must also measure blood pressure and periodically test for proteinuria and edema to diagnose preeclampsia, eclampsia, and hypertension. Health workers must screen women at high risk for cephalopelvic disproportion (e.g. by assessing, height, foot size, and age) and for a malpositioned fetus and multiple pregnancies (e.g. via abdominal examination). They must also educate mothers about the importance of hygienic delivery and provide sanitary delivery kits. Unhygienic delivery conditions and untreated sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can cause puerperal sepsis. STDs can also have other adverse effects such as ectopic pregnancy and blindness, death, or retardation of the fetus/ infant. STD screening could prevent needless suffering in many women; 5-15% of pregnant women in some developing countries have syphilis. Prenatal care should include screening for urinary tract infections which can cause preterm delivery and low birth weight. Antibiotics can treat these infections. Some pregnant women have infectious diseases which may undetected without prenatal care.