Publication, Part of Maternity Services Monthly Statistics
Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, Final July 2026, Provisional August 2026, official statistics
Official statistics
Upcoming changes to this publication series
Please see Highlights section for upcoming changes to this publication series.
22 October 2026 09:30 AM
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 version 2.0 of the data set, which has been in place since April 2019. This latest version was a significant change from the previous 1.5 version 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 initially reduced from the levels seen in earlier publications. MSDS.v.2 data completeness improved over time, and we will continue to looking at ways of supporting further improvements.
This publication also includes the National Maternity Dashboard, which can be accessed via the link below.
Data derived from SNOMED codes is used in some measures such as those for birthweight, 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 development and delivery to trusts. In some cases, this has limited the aspects of data that can be submitted in the MSDS.
The percentages presented in this report are based on rounded figures and therefore may not total to 100%.
Highlights
Upcoming changes to this publication series
This is advance notice that, over the coming months, there will be some changes to this publication series.
As part of work to streamline our publication processes:
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The Data and Measures csv files for each month will be replaced by a single csv in an amended format
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We are introducing a new methodology to identify and remove duplicate birth records.
Previously, where a birth was submitted by more than one NHS trust, it could be included in the figures for each trust, leading to differences between published and local data. The new methodology will use the recorded birth site, where available, to remove duplicate records.
Duplication is concentrated in organisations using the same maternity information system with shared patient records, so not all trust-level figures are affected.
We will publish a Methodological Change Notice explaining the changes and their impact.
As a result of these changes, a new version of the dashboard may be temporarily unavailable while the changes are implemented. Until then, we will aim to keep a static version of the current dashboard on our publication page.
We plan to gradually introduce the changes over the coming months, subject to final testing and quality assurance. We are also considering applying the new methodology to historical data to provide a consistent time series.
Please check the publication webpages for further updates when we publish in the coming months.
If you have any questions about these changes, please contact us at: [email protected]
Official Statistics
These statistics are now classified as official. More information about official statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. More information about this change can be found in the Data Quality Statement.
Where this publication contains new or existing statistics undergoing development and improvement work, they will individually be labelled as "Official Statistics in development" in the accompanying Metadata.
Publication data files and suppression methodology
This publication contains three separate CSV files for the reporting months: one set for the final (July 2026) data and one set for the provisional (August 2026) data.
The contents of the three files are as follows:
• CSV Data: Aggregate figures based on the MSDS, for a standard set of metrics including the total numbers of booking appointments, deliveries, and babies born within the reporting month. Breakdowns are provided at several organisational and regional levels including National, Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), and Provider (trust).
• Data Quality: Counts broken down by provider, showing the VODIM (Valid, Default, Invalid, or Missing) status of the records submitted for each data field within the MSDS. This file contains information about data quality only and should not be used to assess activity and outcomes. It reports on all the data provided at submission and will include information about records that are not included in the final analysis contained within the other two CSV files.
• Measures: Aggregate figures based on the MSDS, for several specific sets of metrics including but not limited to those for Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIM), Continuity of Carer (CofC), mother's body mass index (BMI), and the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle v3 (SBLCBv3). Breakdowns are provided at several organisational and regional levels including National, Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), and Provider (trust). This file only contains CQIMBreastfeeding6to8Weeks figures for final data, not provisional data, as this metric requires Community Services Dataset (CSDS) records which are not available within the required timeframe.
This publication is accompanied by a Metadata file located on the MSDS guidance hub which contains more granular detail about the contents of the above files, including information about the definitions and logic used in their construction.
In accordance with the suppression methodology guidance for this dataset, rounding has been applied to all figures as follows: counts of zero are shown as zero, counts of 1-7 are rounded to 5, and all other counts are rounded to the nearest 5, with rates (where relevant) calculated from the rounded numerator and denominator numbers. There are four exceptions to this, for rare events, where rates are calculated from unrounded numbers but are not shown where the numerator is less than 8. This applies to CQIMTears, CQIMPPH, CQIMPreterm, and CQIMApgar.
Additional information about the Final July 2026, Provisional August 2026 publication
The counts for BirthweightTermGroup and BirthweightTermGroup2500 are not available in the csv data file due to processing issues. We are working to include these breakdowns in future monthly publications.
Following the launch of Year 8 of the Maternity Incentive Scheme as part of the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) in March 2026, the link to the CNST Scorecard Dashboard for Safety Action 2 of Year 7 of the scheme is no longer included in this publication.
There will be no CNST Scorecard Dashboard for Year 8 as there are no specific MSDS submission related criteria.
Key Facts
In July 2026:
118 successful submissions
Of these, 118 submitted data on births.
55,430 bookings in July 2026
69% of reported antenatal booking appointments were within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
46,745 babies born
We received data relating to 46,025 deliveries of 46,745 babies.
41% of deliveries were spontaneous
41% of deliveries were spontaneous vaginal births, 10% had instrumental assistance, 22% were elective caesarean sections and 27% 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.
Resources
Last edited: 21 October 2026 5:08 pm