What action it is taking to improve preterm birth rates.

The Refreshed Framework for Maternity Care was launched last year and aims to ensure that maternity services maximise their contribution to ensuring the best possible outcomes for mother and baby. Care should be individualised to a woman’s needs and women with complex health and social care needs who are at risk of preterm delivery should receive additional support. We expect NHS boards to plan services to suit the needs of their local population in line with this and ensure that care is person centred, safe and effective to help reduce the incidence of premature birth and neonatal admission.
The Scottish Government has recently introduced an access HEAT target for NHS boards to improve rates of early access to antenatal care for all women, as we recognise that lack of antenatal care is a risk factor for preterm delivery and that identification of risk factors is important as early in pregnancy as possible in order to improve outcomes. We have also assisted NHS boards to improve capacity of antenatal services to reach higher risk groups and identify and manage risks during pregnancy to reduce the need for neonatal admission.
For those women who do go on to have a preterm labour and require neonatal care, the forthcoming Quality Framework for Neonatal Care defines the approach to the provision of high quality care for neonates and their families and supports NHSScotland in the delivery of high quality, evidence based, safe, effective and person centred neonatal care.
For women who, sadly, experience stillbirth of their baby, which is often associated with babies who are born prematurely, the Scottish Government convened Stillbirth Group is considering all issues pertinent to stillbirth and will look specifically at improvements in the detection of risks during pregnancy.