Antenatal care: Routine care for the healthy pregnant woman
This is an extract from the guidance and may be misleading if read alone. The complete guidance is available at guidance.nice.org.uk/cg62
Important information about this guideline
The recommendations about smoking in pregnancy in section 1.3.10 of this guideline have been further developed in 'How to stop smoking in pregnancy and following childbirth' (NICE public health guidance 26: www.nice.org.uk/ph26). We have removed the following recommendation from the antenatal care guideline, as well as the quick reference guide and information for patients.
1.3.10.7 Women who are unable to quit smoking during pregnancy should be encouraged to reduce smoking.
This guidance partially updates and replaces NICE clinical guideline 6 (published October 2003).
In this update, the recommendations on antenatal information, gestational age assessment, vitamin D supplementation, alcohol consumption, screening for haemoglobinopathies, screening for structural anomalies, screening for Down's syndrome, screening for chlamydia, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, asymptomatic bacteriuria, placenta praevia, preterm birth, and fetal growth and well-being, as well as the schedule of antenatal appointments, have changed. In addition, some recommendations on smoking cessation and mental health have changed because NICE has produced public health guidance on smoking cessation (NICE public health guidance 10) and a clinical guideline on antenatal and postnatal mental health (NICE clinical guideline 45). Following NICE protocol, we have incorporated the relevant recommendations verbatim into this guideline and have marked them clearly. No other recommendations are affected.
The new and updated recommendations are marked 'New'.