The World Health Organization this week doubled the number of recommended doctor visits for pregnant women — from four visits to eight. Experts advise that women receive a variety of care throughout these visits, including counseling on diet and exercise, vaccination, blood tests, disease prevention, and guidance on tobacco and drug use.

WHO experts also suggest that pregnant women receive at least one ultrasound before 24 weeks to ensure normal fetal development.

The new guidelines are meant to reduce the number of pregnancy-related deaths.

Right now, about two-thirds of pregnant women around the world see a health care professional four or more times during a pregnancy. The new guidelines are meant to reduce the number of pregnancy-related deaths, both from stillborn babies and from women in high-risk situations. Last year, more than 5.3 million babies were either stillborn or died during the first month of life.

Increased prenatal visits could reduce the number of infant deaths by as much as 8 in every 1,000 births. It could also lower the risk of maternal anemia, low birth weight, and pre-term birth.

Experts at the WHO recognize that women in impoverished areas may not always have access to health care professionals on a regular basis during their pregnancies. To accommodate those women in lower-income areas, they suggest that much of the prenatal care be carried out through qualified nurses, midwives, and other trained personnel.

Women don’t always have to pay for a doctor visit in order to get the care they need.

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The new recommendations state that women should have their checkups at 12 weeks and later at 20, 26, 30, 34, 36, 38 and 40 weeks’ gestation.

“To improve the quality of care for mothers and their babies, we need to rethink and redesign the health systems to be able to provide women with respectful, individualized, person-centered care at every contact by practitioners with good clinical and interpersonal skills. Therefore, the adaptation and implementation at the country level may take time and will probably be in phases and during this transition,” said Dr. Özge Tunçalp, a reproductive health and research scientist at WHO.

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For some women, eight visits during a pregnancy seems excessive, and experts recommend that number of visits regardless of how many times the woman has been pregnant or given birth. “The minimum number of eight contacts applies to all pregnant women, regardless of age and number of pregnancies, and includes adolescent girls and those in hard-to-reach areas or conflict settings,” Tunçalp told LifeZette. “However, women with complications during their pregnancy might need more than eight contacts.”

The new recommendations fall in line with what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests: once a month for weeks 4 through 28, twice a month for weeks 28 through 36, and every week after that. Women who rely on other types of health care providers, besides an OB-GYN, are more likely to be younger and to have either Medicaid or no insurance at all — and often have poorer outcomes.

But it’s possible the women who most need the extra appointments aren’t likely to get them at all.