This guideline covers the routine postnatal care that women and their babies should receive in the first 8 weeks after the birth.
Useful Resources
There are a huge number of respected books/websites/papers on perinatal care. Below is a selection of texts, including documents produced by GPCPC that may be useful for both GPs and patients or their families.
We will try to keep this list up-to-date. If there is anything that you think should be added, updated or changed please contact info@gpcpc.co.uk
NICE Quality Standard [QS37]: Postnatal care (updated 2022)
GPCPC contributed to the stakeholder stages of this Quality Standard and support and endorse it. It covers key areas for improvement in postnatal care, and Quality Statement 6 about the GP postnatal check for women is of particular relevance to primary care.
NHS Website: Your post-pregnancy body
NHS information about normal physical changes after birth.
NHS London Maternity Clinical Network: Standardising postnatal guidance for mother’s care provided by NHS maternity services (2021)
Document from the NHS London Maternity Clinical Network bringing together guidance from national recommendations for common clinical conditions alongside learnings from maternal mortality and morbidity reports, with the aim of improving postnatal outcomes for women.