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Birth notification process

Babies born in England, Wales and the Isle of Man are issued with a unique NHS number as soon as possible after birth. This goes on to form their lifelong electronic patient record. The NHS Number helps healthcare staff and service providers to identify and match patients to their health records.

Page contents

Learn more about the NHS number on the NHS website

Find out how to use the personal demographics service

Registering a birth

New births are registered on the Personal Demographics Service (PDS). The PDS is part of the NHS Spine.  This ensures that babies are issued with an NHS Number that is immediately available to organisations involved in the ongoing provision and recording of their care.

Midwifery staff will use one of two methods to register a birth:

  • If they are using a PDS-compliant system, they will register the birth directly onto the PDS. 
  • If they are using a non-PDS compliant system, they will use the Birth Notification process available via the National Care Records Service (NCRS) to register the birth on PDS. 
  • The Birth Notification process is the fallback option if a maternity or Child Health Service needs to notify a birth and their own PDS-compliant system is unavailable.

Once the baby's birth has been registered, the PDS notifies the following services about the birth: child health services, the NHS newborn hearing screening service and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Benefits

The birth notification process:

  • fulfils legal requirements to notify a birth within 36 hours
  • ensures babies receive an NHS Number to support immediate and ongoing care
  • prevents errors and duplicate registrations
  • supports screening for new-borns and infants
  • enables information to be shared between health and care organisations and
  • enables births to be recorded accurately for population statistics.

Further information

internal NHS number

The NHS number helps health and social care staff and service providers match patients to their health and care records.

internal Birth Notification Application guide for maternity

This user guide is intended for maternity users of the Birth Notification Application (BNA). It provides guidance for when you need to submit a birth notification and receive an NHS Number for the baby (or babies). If needed, you may allocate an NHS Number for the mother.

Last edited: 15 March 2024 8:41 am