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CHAPTER 18 - Postnatal care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

By
Rachel Liebling  and
Timothy Overton
Edited by
Tahir Mahmood ,
Philip Owen ,
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran  and
Charnjit Dhillon
Rachel Liebling
Affiliation:
St Michael’s Hospital
Timothy Overton
Affiliation:
St Michael’s University Hospital
Tahir Mahmood
Affiliation:
Forth Park Hospital, Kilcaldy
Philip Owen
Affiliation:
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran
Affiliation:
St George’s University London
Charnjit Dhillon
Affiliation:
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London
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Summary

This chapter provides guidance for clinicians, midwives, managers and commissioners as to the main aims and principles of postnatal care and how these should be delivered. Several national guidelines on postnatal care can be considered under: planning the content and delivery of care, maternal health, infant feeding and maintaining infant health. Coordinating services in the postnatal period is made more difficult by the transfer of care between health professionals and clinical settings. It is essential that staff involved have the necessary training and are competency tested in certain issues pertaining to the postnatal period. The postnatal environment should promote a healthy parent-infant relation ship and should support the wider family. Various neonatal screening tests are carried out in the postnatal period: newborn hearing tests, blood spot tests and newborn physical examination for developmental dislocation of the hip, congenital heart disease.

Keywords

service modellingpostnatal environmentnational guidelinespostnatal periodmaternal healthcare pathwaysinfant feeding
Type
Chapter
Information
Models of Care in Maternity Services , pp. 171 - 180
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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