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Digital

Publication, Part of

NHS Maternity Statistics - England, 2012-13

Official statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Hospital Trusts, Primary Care Trusts, Country, NHS Trusts, Provider, Regions, Hospital and Community Health Services
Date Range:
01 Apr 2012 to 31 Mar 2013

Summary

For the 2012-13 financial year, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) has collected over 17.7 million records detailing episodes of admitted patient care delivered by NHS hospitals in England. These records include details of each delivery which takes place in an NHS hospital. This information has been published in recent years in an annual statistical bulletin.


This is the fifteenth bulletin that has been published on this subject. It covers the period from April 2012 to March 2013 and draws on over 671,000 detailed records of deliveries in NHS hospitals. 

 

NHS Maternity Statistics, 2012-13

The 2012-13 NHS Maternity Statistics tables have been re-designed to deliver a more consistent layout, where each key variable is analysed by a number of relevant variables.  The key variables are:


Method of onset
Method of delivery
Age of mother
Deprivation
Ethnicity
Delivery complications
Birth complications

 

Provider-level analysis, 2012-13
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 and hospital provider level 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 a procedure to facilitate delivery (including episiotomy)
Caesarean with postnatal stay 0-3 days
Total caesarean with anaesthetics
Unassisted deliveries

Please note that an additional data quality note relating to gestation length at delivery was added on 13/01/2014.

Highlights

• The number of deliveries taking place in NHS hospitals has increased by 0.3 per cent since 2011-12 to 671,255.
• Nearly two thirds (64.0 per cent, 379,873) of deliveries were spontaneous onset; 12.8 per cent (76,284) were medically induced and 12.7 per cent (75,621) were caesarean onset. 
• In 2012-13, 404,094 (61.7 per cent) of deliveries in NHS hospitals were spontaneous deliveries. The percentage of caesarean deliveries has remained stable at 25.5 per cent (167,283), with a 0.5 percentage point increase from 2011-12.
• Over a third of all deliveries (37.1 per cent, 211,374) required no anaesthetic before or during delivery, 50.7 per cent (174,541) for spontaneous deliveries. The percentage of per cent deliveries not requiring anaesthetic has increased in recent years (5.8 percentage points since 2005-06).
• 44.3 per cent (297,066) of delivery episodes had a total duration of one day or less; 69.9 per cent (468,891) two days or less and only 10.4 per cent (69,861) of delivery episodes lasted five days or more.  The longest stays were associated with caesarean deliveries.

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Last edited: 24 August 2020 4:24 pm