Publication, Part of NHS Maternity Statistics
NHS Maternity Statistics, England, 2022-23
Official statistics
Correction made to HES national tables
In July 2024, a correction has been made to the total percentages shown in Table 2b of the HES NHS Maternity Statistics Tables.
In February 2025, corrections have also been made to time series data in Tables 1.f, 1.g and 1.i of the HES NHS Maternity Statistics Tables to align to previously published figures.
13 February 2025 17:14 PM
Correction made to MSDS Breastfeeding CSV Data
The file has been replaced with corrected figures. CSDS v1.6 went live for local data collection on 1 January 2023. The previous data file did not include data to cover the period from 1 January 2023 - 31 March 2023.
10 December 2024 11:30 AM
Summary
This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2022-23, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2023.
Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES.
The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. In April 2019 the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This version, MSDS v2.0, is an update that introduced a new structure and content - including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the fourth publication of data from MSDS v2.0 and data from 2019-20 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years.
This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery.
It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with breakdowns including the baby's first feed type, birthweight, place of birth, and breastfeeding activity; and the mothers' ethnicity and age at booking. There is also data available in a separate file on breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. The count of Total Babies includes both live and still births, and previous changes to how Total Babies and Total Deliveries were calculated means that comparisons between 2019-20 MSDS data and later years should be made with care.
Information on how all measures are constructed can be found in the HES Metadata and MSDS Metadata files provided below.
In this publication we have also included an interactive Power BI dashboard to enable users to explore key NHS Maternity Statistics measures.
The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This report will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England.
Any feedback on this publication or dashboard can be provided to [email protected], under the subject “NHS Maternity Statistics”.
Key Facts
Number of deliveries in NHS hospitals
There were 547,244 deliveries during 2022-23.
Method of delivery
The most common method of delivery was spontaneous.
Skin-to-skin contact
73.2 per cent of babies born at 37 weeks had skin-to-skin contact within 1 hour of birth.
Folic acid supplement
86.1 per cent of women reported taking a folic acid supplement prior to, or on confirmation of, pregnancy.
Annual Interactive Dashboard 2022-23
Resources
Last edited: 13 February 2025 5:14 pm