£12m investment set to improve maternity and neonatal care in Scotland

New mums and their babies will receive additional support through a range of measures to transform maternity and neonatal services across Scotland, backed by £12 million from NHS Scotland.

The new model for neonatal care will be tested in four sites to ensure infants needing the most specialist care get the best start possible. All expectant mums will receive care from a primary midwife, alongside a small team, for their whole maternity journey and support will be on hand to help parents of babies in neonatal units to provide as much day-to-day care for their newborn as possible.

Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman visited Crosshouse Hospital in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, which will be one of four units taking part in testing the new neonatal care model. By summer, babies from Crosshouse Hospital needing the most specialist care will be treated at the Royal Hospital for Children, before returning to their local neonatal unit.

The new model will also be tested between the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy later this year.

Jeane says: "These steps to transform our maternity services will ensure mums, babies and other family members are all supported from pregnancy to birth and after.

"To achieve this, we are looking at community maternity services right through to the care for the most premature babies, where we know outcomes are improved when they are in a unit with a higher throughput of cases and where support services, such as surgery, are nearby.

"We are committed to providing all mums, babies and their families with the highest quality of care according to their needs, backed by this investment of £12 million."