Maternity matters

A review of determinants of late or inadequate use of antenatal healthcare found that late booking was associated with the usual suspects, including low income, high levels of unemployment and smoking status. With this in mind, some research into using Trust databases to identify predictors of late booking in antenatal care could also be useful. A report from the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands presses for urgent improvements in UK antenatal care. SANDS echoes the findings from last year's Lancet stillbirths series, which highlighted the UK's poor record compared with other developed countries on this matter. The latest issue of Seminars in Perinatology focuses on maternal deaths and includes a review of the UK confidential enquiries into maternal deaths.