Review decision date: February 2014
Review decision:
Following consultation with stakeholders this guideline has now been placed on the static list.
The care that women should be offered during pregnancy is outlined in NICE guideline CG62 (Antenatal care). However, pregnant women with complex social factors may need additional support to use antenatal care services. This guideline describes how access to care can be improved, how contact with antenatal carers can be maintained, the additional support and consultations that are required and the additional information that should be offered to pregnant women with complex social factors.
Examples of complex social factors include:
- substance misuse;
- recent arrival as a migrant;
- asylum seeker or refugee status;
- difficulty speaking or understanding English;
- age under 20;
- domestic abuse;
- poverty;
- homelessness.
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 are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or service users. The application of the recommendations in this guideline is not mandatory and the guideline does not override the responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or their carer or guardian.
Local commissioners and/or providers have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual health professionals and their patients or service users 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 compliance with those duties.