Project Lead: Dr. Kim Cottick

The Noakes Maternity group is tirelessly working to improve prenatal care in the community and improve access to prenatal care resources. Some common issues in early prenatal care that the group has identified include:

• Patients being referred later in the pregnancy, having missed the window of opportunity for some time-sensitive testing (e.g. genetic testing)
• Community family physicians spending extra time finding information and resources for up to date prenatal care guidelines
• Unnecessary lab work being done in the early prenatal period, and
• A sense of working in a silo without support while providing early prenatal care in the community

In an effort to address these issues, Dr. Cottick spearheaded this project to develop a website that would serve as a resource for community physicians managing early prenatal care. The website offers organized and concise information and links for easy access to guidelines and patient handouts. It also aims to strengthen the relationship between community and hospital through the addition of Noakes team bios, pictures, contact information and online resources.

See the completed website at noakesmaternity.ca.