During the antenatal period, you can promote the health of the women in your care and the health of their babies before and after birth, by educating mothers about the benefits of good nutrition, adequate rest, good hygiene, family planning and exclusive breastfeeding, and immunization and other disease prevention measures. Your aim is to develop women's knowledge of these issues so they can make better informed decisions affecting their pregnancy outcome -- but you should never lose sight of the difficulties some women will face in being able to improve their lifestyles.