Guidance

Supporting public health: maternity and babies

Documents to help local authorities and providers commission and deliver maternity services.

From:
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
Published
1 July 2014
Last updated
12 February 2026 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Maternity high impact area 1: Improving planning and preparation for pregnancy

PDF, 595 KB, 28 pages

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Maternity high impact area 2: Supporting good parental mental health

PDF, 491 KB, 28 pages

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Maternity high impact area 3: Supporting healthy weight before and between pregnancies

PDF, 498 KB, 30 pages

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Maternity high impact area 4: Reducing the incidence of harms caused by alcohol in pregnancy

PDF, 661 KB, 31 pages

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Maternity high impact area 5: Supporting parents to have a smokefree pregnancy

PDF, 566 KB, 32 pages

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Maternity high impact area 6: Reducing the inequality of outcomes for women from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and their babies

PDF, 671 KB, 37 pages

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Care continuity between midwifery and health visiting services: principles for practice

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Details

For guidance related to health visiting and school nursing services, including the ages 0 to 5 and 5 to 19 high-impact areas, see:

The remaining guidance documents on this page are being reviewed and will be updated in due course. In the meantime, the current guidance should be followed.

This guidance identifies 6 areas where local maternity systems have the highest impact on the health and wellbeing of women and their babies from preconception to 6 to 8 weeks postpartum.

Download the pathway and infographic for understanding female genital mutilation (FGM) to help midwives, health visitors, school nurses and practice nurses support women and girls at risk of or following FGM.

Updates to this page

Published 1 July 2014
Last updated 12 February 2026 + show all updates

  1. Removed 'Health visiting and school nursing service delivery model', 'Population health needs assessment: a guide for 0 to 19 health visiting and school nursing services' and all early years and school-aged years high impact areas, and updated title. See the call-out box on the page for links to the updated guidance.

  2. Added Care continuity between midwifery and health visiting guidance.

  3. Added 6 new early years and 6 new school-aged years HIA guides, the Health visiting and school nursing service delivery model and Population health needs assessment documents.

  4. Added 6 new PDFs about maternity high impact areas.

  5. Updated to include the 6 maternity high impact area guides.

  6. Updated set of (13) documents to reflect new policy drivers and evidence.

  7. Updated high impact area guidance for early years, added documents for school aged years high impact areas and links to supporting infographics.

  8. First published.

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