Guidance
This guideline covers antenatal care for all pregnant women with complex social factors (particularly alcohol or drug misuse, recent migrant or asylum seeker status, difficulty reading or speaking English, aged under 20, domestic abuse). It offers advice on improving access to care, maintaining contact with antenatal carers, and additional information and support for these women.
NICE has also produced a guideline on antenatal care. For information on other related topics, see our women's and reproductive health summary page.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on improving access to care for:
- all women with complex social factors
- pregnant women who misuse alcohol or drugs
- pregnant women who are recent migrants, asylum seekers or who have difficulty reading or speaking English
- young pregnant women aged under 20
- pregnant women who experience abuse
Who is it for?
- Healthcare professionals
- Commissioners and providers
- Pregnant women who need additional support to use antenatal services, their families and carers
Is this guideline up to date?
August 2018: We have found no new evidence that affects the recommendations. For more information, see the surveillance decision.
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.