Maternity data archive

For previous maternity publications please refer to the files in this archive. Previous publications include details of all deliveries taking place in NHS hospitals (in England) excluding home births and those taking place in independent sector hospitals. This includes a wide range of information such as details of how the baby was born (method of delivery), complications, birth weight and gestation.

2007-08 Data quality notes

The quality of 2007-08 maternity data deteriorated in comparison to previous years, primarily for the 'place of delivery-actual' field. This was due to an error in the processing of SUS data in 2007-08. This error has now been rectified and will not affect 2008-09 data. Please refer to the data quality paper for more information.

Corrections

• A correction was made to Table 20: Duration of postnatal stay by method of onset of labour and method of delivery, 2006-07 (on 17/02/2025). Further details can be found in the 'Onset and delivery' and 'Antenatal/postnatal stay' sections.
• A minor change was made to Figure 1 (2007-08) (on the 06/07/2025), this is highlighted within the corrected document.

The Explanatory notes files contain introductions to all the tables available for any given data year.

The actual location where the delivery took place.

Status of the person conducting the delivery.

Type of anaesthetic (pain relief) given during labour or delivery.

The method used to induce (initiate) labour, rather than to accelerate it and the method used to deliver a baby that is a registrable birth.

An incision (surgical cut) made into the thinned-out perineal body to enlarge the vaginal orifice during delivery.

Antenatal: The number of days between the start of the episode and the date of delivery.
Postnatal: The number of days between the baby's birth and the end of the finished episode.

Complications occurring before, during and after the delivery.

The number of completed weeks of gestation according to the World Health Organization definition; which specifies time from the first day of the last menstrual period.

The weight of the baby in grams immediately after birth.

A variety of maternity data for individual NHS trusts and sites, this includes; method of delivery, method of onset of labour and various other selected statistics.

Miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies which resulted in a hospital stay.

Responsible statistician

The responsible statistician for this publication is Chris Dew, HES/SUS Analysis (Service) Section Head ([email protected], 0845 300 6016).

Copyright statement

The copyright to the information we are disclosing is held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The HSCIC has suspended the application of re-use licence fees as a consequence of government policy ('Making Public Data Public'), so you may re-use this information free of charge. Please ensure that the following copyright statement is included within your documents: 'Copyright � 2012 Re-used with the permission of The Health and Social Care Information Centre. All rights reserved.' Please also use the citation logo available for download from The IC's website.