This section is for maternity, neonatal or perinatal clinical guidelines, pathways, drug monographs and other guidance documents.
You can read more here about the process the SPN follows when developing guidelines.
The guidance documents listed below have been arranged loosely by topic area and alphabetical thereafter.
We also host neonatal guidance and drug monographs produced by the West of Scotland (WoS) guidelines group and the links to these pages are below. (These WoS guidelines or monographs are not subject to review or governance by the SPN or by PSD Scotland, and any questions about their current status must be referred to the individuals mentioned in the further guidance on this issue within the WoS link on this site.)
The national guidelines have been developed and are governed by the Scottish Perinatal Network, supported by a Programme Team hosted by Public Services Delivery Scotland. The guideline development and governance process is described here. If you have a question about a national guideline, please contact the Scottish Perinatal Network Programme Team.
National Scottish Perinatal Network guidelines are reviewed routinely three years after publication. The date of publication or last review (whichever is most recent) is stated in brackets after the guideline title.
The recommendations in each guideline represent the view of the respective guideline authors, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their clinical judgement, healthcare professionals are expected to take this guidance fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of the individuals and families using their service. It is not mandatory to follow the guideline recommendations, and it remains the responsibility of the healthcare professional to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardians/welfare attorneys.