Two recently published independent, national reports on Preconception Health, Education and Care will be of interest to Health Visitors across Scotland.
These two e-publications were commissioned by NHS GG&C’s Public Health Director, Dr Linda de Caestecker (currently on a year’s secondment as Deputy Director of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) as reports to – not official policy statements by – NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
They were written by Dr. Jonathan Sher and are based upon the latest and best available research and related evidence. The data and findings were accompanied and enhanced by discussions and correspondence with more than one hundred key individuals and organisations (primarily in Scotland), as well as information from numerous websites.
The main report; Missed Periods: Scotland’s opportunities for better pregnancies, healthier parents and thriving babies the first time . . . and every time is a ‘Plain English’ evidence-based distillation of a vast and complex field.
A much briefer ‘taster’ version Prepared for Pregnancy?: Preconception health, education and care in Scotland is an introduction and overview for people having neither the time nor inclination at the moment to read the more detailed primer. This also includes the advance reviews by a leading public health professor in Scotland and the senior advisor on preconception health to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood (herself an obstetrician) also reviewed this report in advance and has been publicly supportive of it.
Dr. Sher has also written two very short opinion pieces about this topic with an emphasis on the public sector:
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