Maternity data 2009-10

The maternity publication includes 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.

Data for 2009-10

A number of revisions have been made to the size and the presentation of the 2009-10 NHS Maternity Statistics publication. These revisions are intended to bring the publication in line with the National Statistics code of practice, and highlight data quality issues to stimulate improvement in the quality of HES maternity data submitted by NHS organisations. For more information on this process, please visit the User engagement page.

For further details on the changes to the table numbers and locations see Appendix A of the 2009-10 maternity explanatory notes. Data tables, graphs and explanatory notes prior to the 2009-10 publications can be accessed through the Maternity data archive.

The 2009-10 NHS Maternity Statistics publication includes two downloadable Excel files:

1. NHS Maternity Statistics, 2009-10

There are 33 tables and three graphs now available in one Excel workbook, which includes data on the following:

• Place of delivery
• Person conducting delivery
• Anaesthetics
• Method of onset and method of delivery
• Episiotomy
• Antenatal/postnatal stay
• Complications
• Gestation
• Birth weight
• Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.

2. Provider level analysis, 2009-10

The purpose of the provider level analysis is to contribute to the improvement of both the quality and coverage of maternity data submitted to HES. It is hoped this will stimulate discussion and ultimately contribute to enhancements in patient care.

The provider level analysis provides information at national, strategic health authority, hospital provider and site level (where submitted) relating to:

• Gestation period in weeks at first antenatal assessment date
• Gestation length at delivery
• Method of Onset of Labour
• Method of delivery
• Person conducting delivery
• Place of delivery
• Selected maternity statistics:
• Spontaneous deliveries with episiotomy
• Caesarean with Post natal stay 0-3 days
• Total caesarean with anaesthetics
• Unassisted Deliveries.

Key facts

The key facts from the 2009-10 maternity publication are:

• The number of deliveries in NHS hospitals dipped slightly in the past year, showing a decrease of 261 deliveries from 652,638 in 2008-09 to 652,377 in 2009-10.
• 63.0 per cent (292,637) of women had their first antenatal assessment within the first completed 12 weeks of pregnancy. This compares to 58.3 per cent in 2008-09 (227,773).
• There was no change in the percentage of women having a spontaneous delivery with an episiotomy from 2008-09 to 2009-10, which has remained at 8.3 per cent (33,073 in 2009-10 and 32,834 in 2008-09).
• The caesarean percentage has remained relatively stable at 24.8 per cent (157,356) in 2009-10 compared to 24.6 per cent (154,814) in 2008-09.

Note: (10/12/2024) The NHS IC initially published the Provider Level Analysis spreadsheet on 18/11/2010. Due to the suppression of small numbers it wasn't possible to calculate method of onset or delivery rates for all providers. Additional information has been added to tables C and D of the Provider Level Analysis allowing estimated rates to be presented.

The HES team invite and welcome feedback on annual and monthly HES publications, please follow the link below. The questionnaire should take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete and could shape the future of our publications to meet your needs.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HES_Customer_feedback

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.