New mothers will be given a physical and mental health check six weeks after giving birth, in a victory for campaigners.
From April, the 600,000 women a year who have babies in England will undergo an assessment of their health and wellbeing with either a GP or practice nurse at their surgery.
The appointments will be dedicated to exploring the mother’s health and be separate to the six-week check that all babies already receive. However, many of them will occur immediately before or after the infant’s check, to make the best use of mothers’ and NHS staff’s time.
Until now many women have either not had a postnatal check or had only a very brief one during their baby’s appointment, often because of time pressures. That has left many feeling unable to raise issues about their own health and led to concerns that some conditions are being missed.