In Scotland, ‘maternity’ usually means whole pregnancy, labour and birth and baby’s first few hours or days.
The NMN delivers it’s programme of work through Facets of Maternity Care, as shown in the diagram below. The Facets also help ensure the work of the NMN remains strategically aligned with The Best Start programme and it’s recommendations.
In keeping with the core values of NHS Scotland and scope of the network, maternity service users (pregnant women, their partners and babies and their families) are at the centre.
NHS Scotland’s maternity guide is Ready Steady Baby. It’s for everyone looking for information about pregnancy, labour and birth and very early parenthood. There’s a page about how Covid-19 is affecting the way maternity care is delivered just now.
Royal College for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) has some videos for parents about Covid-19 and pregnancy care.
Since women can’t attend antenatal classes just now, the Scottish Government has arranged for Solihull online antenatal courses to be free.
To register for the course, go to In Our Place (using access code ‘Tartan’). Promotional resources can be found here.
Ann Holmes, Chie
f Midwifery Officer for Scotland, has written a blog about Using technology to support maternity care – during Covid-19 and beyond.
For example, more appointments are happening using NHS Near Me video calls, Florence (text messages), BadgerNet (electronic maternity records) and some women and families are being supported to monitor their blood pressure and urine at home.
The NMN team met (virtually) with senior teams in all 14 Boards between November 2020 and March 2021 and we are delighted to now share the summary of themes and findings from the visits. A common theme was the opportunity to develop consistent national guidance. The report was sent to senior teams in all 14 Boards on 13th May, for onward cascading to front-line staff, inviting feedback on a range of proposed topics for national guidelines and pathways. We also requested volunteers to join a Guidelines Working Group. This will help us consider all areas where national guidance may be an improvement on current practice and develop a structured and prioritised programme for progressing this.
The NMN team will be working to form our Core Steering Group in the coming months and we hope to present the proposed programme of work to them in the summer, with the view of forming working groups to take this work forward in the autumn.
If you have any questions or would like to be involved in this work, please contact nss.perinatalnetwork@nhs.scot.