Antenatal means happening before a birth. Antenatal care, an antenatal class, the antenatal clinic.
This is the British term; American English says prenatal, and both mean the same thing. Antenatal care is among the most effective public health measures there is, since most of what goes wrong in pregnancy is treatable when found early.
1adjectiveantenatalHappening before a birth.
“She went to antenatal classes to learn how to breathe during labour.”
antenatal is a quality of timing.
Latin ante, before, plus natalis, of birth, from nasci, to be born. Prenatal is built the same way with a different prefix.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Latin
ante — before
English, today
antenatal
Built from
From Latin ante (“before”) + nātālis (“natal”), from nāscor (“to be born”), equivalent to ante- + natal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA