{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T18:03:41Z","timestamp":1780682621990,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780617600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100019778","name":"President\u2019s Malaria Initiative","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["7200AA18C00014"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["7200AA18C00014"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100019778","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosglobalpublichealth.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLOS Glob Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Group antenatal care (G-ANC) is a model that brings pregnant women with similar estimated delivery dates together for clinical assessment and participatory learning in a supportive social context. A qualitative study was nested in a trial assessing the community impact of G-ANC on ANC retention and uptake of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) in Atlantique Department, Benin. This nested qualitative study assessed women\u2019s experience of G-ANC, and ways participation could foster self-efficacy to perform a variety of prevention and care-seeking behaviors. Ten semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with 129 women who attended G-ANC; deductive thematic codes were informed by Bandura\u2019s four sources of efficacy expectations. Recently pregnant women\u2019s experiences with individual ANC versus G-ANC were assessed via household surveys. G-ANC participation proffered three sources of self-efficacy expectations: performance accomplishments, verbal persuasion, and vicarious experience. Among household survey respondents, 96% (134\/140) of women who participated in G-ANC would prefer it over individual ANC for future pregnancies. While a higher proportion of G-ANC participants felt that the provider answered all their questions in a way they could understand, most women reported that not all their questions were answered, even in G-ANC. G-ANC processes fostering self-efficacy to overcome barriers to ANC attendance may have facilitated women\u2019s participation in G-ANC meetings as well as taking more doses of IPTp. Self-efficacy of pregnant women participating in G-ANC could be strengthened by providers addressing all participants\u2019 questions in a more complete and understandable way, contributing to more effective verbal persuasion. Other parallel processes during G-ANC need to be maintained to provide multiple sources of self-efficacy for health behaviors like timely care-seeking, pregnancy management, pregnancy self-care, and facility birth.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgph.0004851","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T17:30:11Z","timestamp":1780680611000},"page":"e0004851","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pgph.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["\u201cEach moon we come to weigh the pregnancy:\u201d Exploring the experience of group antenatal care processes in Benin and their contributions to self-efficacy"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-4569-0038","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Julie Niemczura","family":"Sutton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fifam\u00e8 Aubierge 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Dodo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-0688-2760","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Erin","family":"Go","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Courtney","family":"Emerson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9971-457X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Catherine","family":"Dentinger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephanie","family":"Suhowatsky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Julie","family":"Buekens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0251-3868","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Katherine","family":"Wolf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manzidatou","family":"Alao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marie 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