These new hand-held notes have been developed by an in-house team of the Perinatal Institute with the

About the Pregnancy Notes - Page 1 of 2 Version 4.3 (November 2004) The new Pregnancy Notes intend to facilitate a partnership between the principal stakeholders in antenatal care – mother, baby and care provider – and place emphasis on patient safety and informed choice. Their aims correspond to those of the NHS Agenda: 1. The NHS National Plan [1] promotes many objectives relevant to maternity, including - partnership: seeking to make all parts of the health and social care system work better together - patient care: informing and empowering expectant mothers so that they can be more involved - prevention: focusing the health system on the causes of ill health 2. There is a concerted effort towards Tackling Health Inequalities and on providing a sure foundation through a healthy pregnancy and early childhood [2]. The Notes place emphasis on tailoring care, and on the importance of individual needs in a multicultural maternity population. 3. ‘Building a Safer NHS for Patients’ has aims to reduce the occurrence of avoidable harm [3]. Many instances of adverse perinatal outcome are potentially avoidable [4] and are often linked to lack of communication. The hand-held maternity record is an important means of communication between care providers. Furthermore, mothers are engaged in the process and are able to understand and monitor their care. Prompts for care providers to record that information has actually been given is also likely to ...