Maternal and child health
- Maternity services in Scotland are delivering high quality care before, during and after pregnancy.
In particular: - During early pregnancy women who experience complications receive specialist assessment, care and support
- During childbirth women have one-to-one care from midwives and access to appropriate pain management
- And throughout they are closely involved in planning their own care.
Patient experience- “Having had three children in the last five years I’ve been able to see how the NHS has become more focused on engaging with people as individuals. My third child was delivered in a birth-pool at Crosshouse Hospital. The atmosphere was relaxing and soothing for both me and my baby – but all the time I knew that competent and confident medical staff were there should they be required.”
Lillias Haye
This year, we carried out the first ever review of maternity services in Scotland to see how well NHS boards perform against standards of care set by us – this made Scotland the only country in the world that has set standards for maternity services and then measured how well the NHS is performing against them.
We have identified a need to ensure all non-specialist anaesthetists who cover obstetrics receive regular training updates, and for NHS boards in Scotland to provide a vision for the future of each maternity service.
Other work in this area
We have initiated a database of good practice examples for maternity services and published a report on the detection and management of postnatal depression. This depressive illness occurs during the first postnatal year and affects 10 - 15% of women. We found that clinical guidelines are generally being followed in both policy and practice, but made a number of recommendations for improving the management of this illness.
We published SIGN guidelines on dealing with bronchiolitis in children.
Bronchiolitis is a respiratory condition associated with viral infections and is most prevalent in the winter months. One third of all infants will develop bronchiolitis in the first year of their lives. Our guidelines reduce the use of unnecessary treatments and address widespread variation in how this condition is managed. The guideline made recommendations on prevention, diagnosis, investigation, treatment and management of bronchiolitis.
We continued to fund the Scottish Programme for Clinical Effectiveness in Reproductive Health including a study examining the care provided and outcomes achieved by midwife-led community maternity units (CMUs). The study showed the major contribution such units make to maternity care with 10% of mothers-to-be receiving most of their pregnancy care from a CMU midwife and 3% delivering their baby in a CMU. The study also provided evidence that careful and continuous risk assessment of individual women throughout pregnancy is being undertaken in order to assess suitability for CMU birth. We also continue to support NHS boards in implementing the Scottish Woman Held Maternity Record.
Further reading
Access SIGN’s postnatal depression guideline
Access SIGN’s child health related guidelines
Access the Scottish Programme for Clinical Effectiveness in Reproductive Health
Review of maternity services in Scotland
Maternity services good practice examples
Detection and management of postnatal depression report