Birth Notification Application (BNA) - quick reference guide

Search for the mother's record by using either Basic Search or Advanced Search.

Basic Search

Basic Search will only find a record when there is an exact match to all the search criteria provided. The demographic details of the found patient record will be displayed.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search will find all of the records that match the details entered. All resultant records will be displayed in a patient list. The correct patient record should be selected by cross-referencing with other details.

Providing a maternal NHS Number on the registration is important because it allows the mother’s and baby’s records to be linked together. Mothers registered with a general practice will always have an NHS Number and every effort should be made to find the correct number. In the event that a mother without an NHS Number does attend the maternity unit, then a number can be allocated for the mother using BNA. Please refer to the BNA guidance documentation for further information.

Select the Birth Notification tab. Any appropriate information from the mother’s details and from your smartcard are automatically entered into the birth notification fields. This information can be amended if needed.

You should now enter the details of the birth. Any field that is in bold and marked with a single asterisk (*) is a mandatory field. Any group of fields that are marked with two asterisks (**) will need at least one item from the group to be entered.

If you encounter a problem or are unsure of any of the birth details then you can save your progress. You can rectify the problem or verify the details before completing the birth notification. 

After you've entered all of the details you know, select the Submit button. This will validate the data entered, highlighting any missing data or errors.

Please ensure that the data entered is correct. Once the birth notification has been submitted the details cannot be amended.

If the details are successfully validated, then the birth notification is saved, and the NHS Number for the infant is displayed in a popup box containing the details that have been entered. You can choose to print any or all of the following:

1. The completed birth notification.
2. The blood spot labels with or without the infant's NHS Number in barcoded form.
3. Identity wristbands for the infant.

All printed objects will be displayed in a pdf window and can be sent to any appropriate printer.

You will also be presented with the option to enter a birth for a different mother. This will return you to the search screens to find the mother.

If you have been entering details for a Multiple Birth, then you will be presented with the option to enter a birth for the same mother. This will return you to the Enter Birth Notification tab and will have pre-populated a lot of the details on this screen that relate to the place of birth, the mother and the notifying person. These details may be amended if it is appropriate to do so.

The process of entering a birth notification can be broken down into these steps:

Select the List Birth Notifications menu option to list birth notifications for a given organisation.

You can select to see any combination of birth notifications that are:

• completed - these are saved automatically when a birth notification is successful
• incomplete - these are saved at the request of the users and have not been completed
• failed - when the birth notification passes validation but fails to return an NHS Number these are saved at the request of the users

Check the appropriate boxes for the birth notifications status that you require to list. Enter the organisation code and enter a date range for either the baby’s date of birth or the Saved/Notified date.

Now select the 'Refresh List' button and the list of birth notifications that meet your criteria will be displayed with up to 50 entries per page. The list can be re-sorted using the sort arrows in the title box to sort in ascending or descending order.

Additionally it can be filtered using the ‘Filter Results’ box. A minimum of 3 characters are required, and only results that contain the entered details from this box will be displayed. It is possible to then select all or some of the birth notifications by checking the tick boxes. This will allow you to:

1. View the entered details for the selected birth notification(s). A failed or incomplete birth notification can be completed and you can perform all print options for completed birth notifications. It is possible to scroll through the birth notifications.
2. Print the selected birth notification(s). The details of each birth notification will be printed on a separate sheet of paper.
3. Export the selected birth notification(s) into a csv file. This will contain all of the selected birth notifications, each on a different row.
4. Export all of the listed birth notification(s) into a csv file. This will contain all of the birth notifications with each on a different row.

Note that the Incomplete and Failed birth notifications will be retained for 14 days, and the Completed birth notifications will be retained for 6 months.