What should a gynaecology or maternity clinic say on WhatsApp?

A gynaecology, obstetrics or maternity clinic gets the same fee and booking questions any clinic does, plus a few no other specialty faces the same way: a sex-determination hint, a termination enquiry, a husband asking about his wife's visit. This guide sorts the messages that need a phone call right now from the ones that need a careful, lawful reply, and gives you the wording for both.

Which messages need a call right now, not a WhatsApp reply?

A handful of messages should never sit in a chat queue, however calmly they are worded. Sort for these before answering anything else.

Give the same fixed instruction every time: call the clinic's number or come in immediately, and go to the nearest hospital if the clinic cannot be reached. Never try to judge severity over chat, and never reply with reassurance instead of the instruction. This is general safety routing, not medical advice; what the symptom means is for the doctor to decide.

A patient who has recently delivered can message about the same danger signs, most commonly heavy bleeding or fever. Treat that message with the same urgency as an antenatal one; being past delivery doesn't move it down the queue.

What do patients ask a gynaecology or maternity clinic on WhatsApp?

Once the urgent messages are routed out, most of what is left falls into a small set of patterns. The table below is a pattern for how to answer, not a script; your clinic's own fees, timings and doctor's instructions decide the actual words.

For the broader question of what makes a clinic easy to reach and book on WhatsApp in the first place, our guide to getting more patients for your clinic in India covers that ground. This post stays to the two questions that carry the most legal and privacy risk: a baby's sex, and a termination.

What can never be answered about a baby's sex?

Nothing, in any form. This is the one rule on this page with no judgement call attached to it at all.

"By words, signs, or in any other manner" is a wide net on purpose. A wink, a colour, a code phrase agreed in advance, or answering a leading question with "you'll be happy" can all fall inside it. The safe rule for staff and for any automated reply is the same: there is no version of this question that gets a yes, a no, or a hint. If your clinic has an ultrasound or imaging machine, rule 17(1) of the PCPNDT Rules, 1996 also requires a notice, in English and the local language, stating that disclosure of the sex of the foetus is prohibited under law, displayed prominently on the premises.

A sample reply

No apology, no explanation of the law's reasoning, and no softening the refusal into a hint. The same fixed reply, every time, from every staff member and any automated system.

How do we handle a termination enquiry safely?

With privacy first and no gatekeeping on chat. Two legal points matter more here than at almost any other kind of clinic enquiry.

For a chat reply, that translates into two simple rules: never ask whether the patient is married, and never note the enquiry anywhere that isn't already confidential. Offer a consultation the same way you would for any other enquiry.

Nothing about the request is questioned, judged or logged outside the patient's own file. What the doctor can offer under the MTP Act depends on gestation and the specific case, and that assessment happens at the consultation, not on chat.

What about a husband or family member messaging about a patient?

Only with the patient's own consent, and even then, say as little as the notification screen can show.

There is a second, quieter risk worth planning for: the notification itself. A WhatsApp preview shows on a locked screen and on a phone the whole family uses, so even a reply the patient herself is expecting should stay minimal. Confirm a time and a place. Leave out the procedure name, the reason for the visit or anything that reads like a diagnosis; those belong inside the conversation, not in a line that can flash up while someone else is holding the phone. Our guide to keeping patient data private on WhatsApp covers the wider DPDP Act picture; this is the specific version of that risk at a gynaecology or maternity clinic.

How do we answer delivery package and fee questions?

With your clinic's own published range, not a sales pitch. This is where an otherwise fine reply can drift into something NMC and ASCI don't allow.

• Give a range, tied to what it includes. A delivery package price usually depends on normal delivery versus caesarean, room category and length of stay; say what the range covers rather than one flat figure.
• Declaring charges is allowed; soliciting isn't. Regulation 6.1.1 of the National Medical Commission's Code of Medical Ethics Regulations, 2002 (still in force; the 2023 draft regulations remain in abeyance) permits a doctor to make a public declaration of charges, in the same clause that calls soliciting patients, directly or indirectly, unethical. A quoted price is fine; a discount, a countdown or "book now to save" reads as the second thing, not the first.
• Every claim has to hold up. The ASCI Code expects an advertisement, and a chat reply functions as one, to be honest and something the clinic can actually prove if asked.

The WhatsApp version of the wider fee-display rule is simply: quote it straight, skip the offer. Keep the same range on your fee board, your website and your Google Business Profile too, so a patient, or an AI answer summarising your clinic, doesn't end up quoting a number your chat reply contradicts.

A reply checklist before you hit send

Run any WhatsApp reply from a gynaecology, obstetrics or maternity clinic past this list first.

1. 1

   Step 1: Patient messages

   Cost, a booking, a symptom, or one of the harder questions on this page.
2. 2

   Step 2: Sort before replying

   Any danger sign goes to a phone call immediately. Any version of a sex question gets the fixed refusal. Everything else moves on.
3. 3

   Step 3: Answer or route

   Routine questions get a plain, minimal reply and a booking offer. Sensitive ones stay private, non-judgemental and free of procedure names in the message body.
4. 4

   Step 4: Doctor decides

   Any clinical judgement, eligibility or diagnosis happens at the consultation, never on chat.

Our guide to IVF clinic advertising rules in India covers the same PCPNDT law from the fertility-clinic side, including its overlap with the ART Act, worth reading alongside this one.