Pregnant women should book their lead maternity carer (LMC) early in pregnancy, according to the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee. The committee makes 29 recommendations, three of these calling on clinicians and the Ministry of Health to encourage women to book with an LMC before 10 weeks’ gestation. Committee chair Cindy Farquhar says this is important so the LMC can provide timely prenatal advice and organise the necessary antenatal screening tests. The LMC can also organise specialist referral if necessary and, where relevant, encourage the woman and her family to attend smoking cessation programmes. At a committee workshop during the November 2009 launch of the review, it was suggested some women delay between confirming pregnancy with their GP and making their first LMC booking. Counties Manukau DHB clinical director for women’s health Keith Allenby says one of the reasons for the number of late bookings is a shortage of midwives, so a campaign would need to be backed by an extra 60 to 100 full time midwives. Overall, however, New Zealand's rates of perinatal and maternal deaths compare favourably with the 2007 data from the UK and Australia.