Maternity guidance drawn together in one place for first time

New maternity standards have been jointly published by the RCM and three other royal colleges.

They guidance contains 30 maternity standards covering the stages of motherhood from preconception to the transition into parenthood. It has taken two years to develop the standards, which draws together evidence from existing guidance such as NICE and not-for-profit organisations like BLISS.

A second document, published by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, includes 20 gynaecology standards covering a wide range of conditions and treatment.

RCOG president professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran said: 'We are very proud of these standards.  For the first time, we have a robust framework for women-centred care in a complete package.

'This is shining example of multidisciplinary teamwork between the different specialties and groups who are, after all, working toward the same goal, for the benefit of women,' he said.

Anna Dixon, King's Fund director of policy, welcomed the guidance. 'Maternity staff are issued with too many standards by a range of organisations which places considerable burdens on staff without delivering commensurate safety improvements,' she said.

'This report should go some way towards reducing this burden by ensuring staff are not faced with too many separate and complex guidelines,' she added.