Summary
This statistical release makes available the most recent monthly data on NHS-funded maternity services in England, using data submitted to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS).
This is the latest report from the newest version of the data set, MSDS.v.2, which has been in place since April 2019. The new data set was a significant change which added support for key policy initiatives such as continuity of carer, as well as increased flexibility through the introduction of new clinical coding. This was a major change, so data quality and coverage has initially reduced from the levels seen in previous publications.
The data derived from SNOMED codes is being used in some measures such as those for smoking at booking and birth weight, and others will follow in later publications. SNOMED data is also included in some of the published Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIMs), where rules have been applied to ensure measure rates are calculated only where data quality is high enough. System suppliers are at different stages of developing their new solution and delivering that to trusts. In some cases, this has limited the aspects of data that could be submitted to NHS Digital.
In June, we published CQIMBreastfeeding6to8weeks for the first time which counts the percentage of babies fully or partially breastfed between 6 and 8 weeks old. This is an experimental statistic and currently the official statistics for breastfeeding prevalence at 6 to 8 weeks after birth are produced quarterly and annually by the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). More detail can be found in the ‘Coherence and Comparability’ section of this publication’s Data Quality Statement.
To help Trusts understand to what extent they meet the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) Data Quality Criteria for Safety Action 2, until the publication of July 2022 data we are producing two data files each month which contain information for data providers showing their performance against all MSDS-derived Safety Action 2 criteria. These are available for download alongside the main publication documents below. All the CNST measures use data from the latest reporting month only, in this case May 2022. For some measures this differs to their construction in the main publication CSV files, where they may report on data from longer or different time periods.
These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website.
Please note that the percentages presented in this report are based on rounded figures and therefore may not total to 100%.
Key Facts
122 successful submissions
For May 2022 data, 122 providers successfully submitted data with 122 submitting data on births.
This is all expected from NHS trusts.
56,250 bookings in May 2022
56,250 women with an antenatal booking appointment were reported in the period, of which 56% were within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Of the trusts that submitted booking data, there were 31,640 bookings in which the babies' gestational age was in the 0-70 days range.
We received data relating to 45,235 deliveries of 45,920 babies.
We have removed information about external data source counts of birth due to their lack of comparability with MSDS figures. We are investigating a more robust and appropriate replacement, and will reinstate a comparison when this work is complete.
52% of deliveries were spontaneous
52% of deliveries were spontaneous vaginal births, 10% had instrumental assistance, 16% were elective caesarean sections and 21% were emergency caesarean sections.
Administrative Sources
Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS): this is a patient-level data set that captures information about activity carried out by Maternity Services relating to a mother and baby(s), from the point of the first booking appointment until mother and baby(s) are discharged from maternity services. This is a secondary uses data set, which re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care.
Last edited: 25 August 2022 9:36 am
