Clinical Practice Resources

Sexual Health After Birth

This handout, developed at IWK Health, addresses questions and concerns about sexual health that may arise after child birth: issues such as body image, fatigue, stress, hormones, new responsibilities as a parent, relationships, the birthing experience, previous trauma, and mental health.

Additionally, the Post Baby Hanky Panky site offers a series of short films (less than 1 min each) based on recent research on psychological risk and protective factors affecting both the sexual and relationship satisfaction of new parents.  http://postbabyhankypanky.com/
COVID-19 Vaccination for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Individuals

The Nova Scotia Vaccine Expert Panel has updated resources for care providers to use with pregnant and breastfeeding individuals to guide discussion about COVID-19 vaccination. This information is specific to adult immunization.

In addition to these documents, the IWK has produced a video to help individuals make an informed choice about whether to get the COVID vaccine while they are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or breastfeeding. The video is hosted on the IWK public website: https://www.iwk.nshealth.ca/COVID-19/vaccine-info-for-pregnant-or-breastfeeding

For more resources related to the care of pregnant patients and their newborns affected by COVID-19, please refer to our COVID-19 Resources page.
Healthy Babies, Healthy Families: Postpartum & Postnatal Guidelines

This document describes care and services for heathy populations and contains guidance in four key areas: Reducing Health Inequities; Promoting and Supporting Healthy Infant Development; Promoting and Supporting Parent Postpartum Physical and Emotional Well-Being; and Supporting Healthy Transitions and Follow-up.
Provincial syphilis outbreak - recommendations for pregnant women and newborns

As of January 20, 2020, the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nova Scotia has declared a provincial syphilis outbreak. Across Canada syphilis outbreaks have been declared in most provinces/territories, due to increasing rates of infection. Changes to recommendations for pregnant women and newborns are outlined in the documents below:
Recommendations for Ophthalmia Neonatorum (ON) Prevention in NS

The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) has recommended moving from universal newborn ocular prophylaxis, to universal prenatal screening for Neisseriae gonorrhoeae (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and treatment of those with positive results in order to eradicate infection and prevent intrapartum transmission to the newborn.

As universal ocular prophylaxis is eliminated from routine newborn care, functions of the health system must be optimized and synchronized to prevent ON. RCP has partnered with clinical experts and stakeholders from across NS to produce these resources, which are designed to offer guidance for the prevention of ON:
Loving Care

Below are links to PDF documents from the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA). You can find these documents on the NSHA patient information pamphlets listing using the keywords "loving care" and "tendres soins" or individually by searching the pamphlet numbers, given below.

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