Summary

The advice in the NICE guideline covers:

• healthy women who are giving birth at 37–42 weeks (known as ‘term’).

It does not specifically look at women

• who are giving birth before 37 weeks
• whose unborn baby is not growing properly
• who have conditions such as pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) or diabetes, or infections such as group B streptococcus, HIV or genital herpes virus
• who are having more than one baby
• who need a caesarean section

See http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG55