NHS Maternity Statistics, England, 2022-23

More background information about the MSDS and MSDS v2.0 is available. 

Alongside this publication a Statement of Administrative Sources is also published, as required by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. 

MSDS data are published monthly at provider level and higher geographies. The data items included in the published monthly tables are explained in a metadata document, and NHS England publish a technical output specification describing the format and possible values for all MSDS data items. 

Our website contains more background information about HES.

The HES publications focus on headline information about hospital activity. Each annual publication includes a series of national tables and also provider-level breakdowns for some main areas.

All data items included in the published tables are explained in footnotes, and NHS England publishes data dictionaries for HES describing the format and possible values for all HES data items:

This data is also readily accessible via an online interrogation service (for NHS users) or via our bespoke extract service.

RTP, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, are reporting approximately 2,761 fewer delivery episodes than birth episodes for activity taking place in 2022-23, in the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data outputs. It is not clear if this results from an overcounting of birth episodes or undercounting of delivery episodes. Therefore any analysis using the RTP delivery counts should be undertaken with caution. Delivery episodes for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (RXW) are all reported as home births for 2022-23, not hospital-based deliveries, and therefore no delivery counts are included for this trust in this publication.

Detailed information about HES data quality of data items, and completeness of provider data submissions is available.

Five trusts submitted MSDS data for only 11 out of the 12 months of 2022-23. Therefore, their overall annual figures may not be fully reflective of the full year's activity. These trusts are Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDU), University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (R0D), Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RAX), Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RK5), and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (RVW). Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (RY2) has reported a small number of booking appointments in late 2021, for pregnancies with births that took place at other trusts in 2022-23.

Detailed information about data quality of HES and MSDS data items, and completeness of provider data submissions can be found in the Excel data quality files published alongside this report.

Joint data quality statements reporting against the European Statistical System (ESS) quality dimensions and principles is published with this report.

In April 2019, the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This is the fourth publication of data from MSDS v2.0, therefore MSDS data from 2019-20 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years.

In order to prevent disclosure of identities or information about service users, all figures for the 2022-23 MSDS data have been rounded to the nearest 5. Figures between 1 and 7 are also rounded to 5. Percentages have been calculated from rounded figures.

Percentages included in this publication, unless otherwise stated, are based on total ‘knowns’, e.g. the percentage of caesareans is based on all deliveries with a known method of delivery, excluding those with an unknown method of delivery. Where there is a high percentage of ‘unknowns’ for a given clinical practice or outcome (these are identifiable in all tables), the reported figures for ‘knowns’ should be treated with caution. Given the fluctuation in the number of ‘unknowns’ over time, it should be noted that all reported changes may be the result of changes/improvements in recording practice rather than changes in clinical practice or clinical outcomes.

For information on fields referred to below refer to the HES data dictionary and MSDS Technical Output Specification.