“Service users (pregnant people) need to understand the importance of maternity stats. They give an important insight into the situation in that NHS maternity system.” - Jilly

Why checking maternity statistics for the local NHS Maternity Units is important

Are you looking for maternity statistics for Lister Hospital? You’re pregnant and looking to see whether Lister Hospital is a good place to give birth?

Maternity statistics give a good indication of what the local NHS maternity system is looking like for those giving birth. Maternity statistics are often posted monthly on the Maternity Voices Partnership social media, as a quick and easy way to see local statistics.

Lister Hospital Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership post infographics on their Facebook page and Instagram page. They have claimed that the statistics are posted as a memory keepsake for those who have given birth that month.

But service users (pregnant people) need to understand the importance of maternity stats. They give an important insight into the situation in that NHS maternity system, so they need to be analysed and compared to national statistics, and for different locations locally.

In this blog I’ll go through why maternity statistics are so important, how Lister hospital compares to other local areas, and why you need to know about the maternity statistics as early as possible in pregnancy.

What do I need to do when I find out I am pregnant? And why are maternity statistics needed then?

When you first find out that you are pregnant, you are recommended to book yourself into maternity care. It can be a bit of a minefield trying to find out what to do so here’s a run down.

As soon as you find out that you’re pregnant you’re advised to let somebody know. Sometimes it’s your GP, other times you’ll need to self-refer to local maternity services. You usually choose your local hospital or maternity services, so Google self-refer maternity services "local area" and you should be taken to the right place.

Whilst maternity care is a good idea for the health and wellbeing of yourself and your baby, it is not a legal requirement. You can, if you wish, choose not to engage in maternity services.

Your first antenatal appointment with a midwife should be around 8-10 weeks, with a scan invitation following between 11-14 weeks. You will sometimes get a letter in the post inviting you to a scan before you've had any contact with someone for your first appointment, your booking appointment.

When your first access maternity care in the UK you would usually choose the nearest service to your home, for ease of appointments. But that isn't necessarily where you might want to give birth. You can change your care provider at any time, but often different NHS trusts require you to go through booking and initial testing again, so it is on record in their trust. This often puts people off.

It isn't ideal booking into the place you expect to give birth before you've even got any idea about the importance of birth location. But this blog will help you to understand the important information you need.

Birth place choices for those in Welwyn Hatfield

Living in Welwyn Hatfield, so Welwyn, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Brookmans Park, Woolmer Green, Cuffley, Northaw, Potters Bar and Welham Green; the closest local hospital would usually be Lister Hospital in Stevenage.

People living in Hatfield may choose Barnet hospital as their closest maternity unit, but Lister hospital would have connections to local Welwyn Hatfield Drs surgeries. You may have midwife appointments at The QE2 hospital, or you may have community midwife appointments at your local GP surgery or children’s centre.

“Living in Welwyn where can I give birth?” – your choices would generally be Lister Hospital at the Midwife Led Unit, the Consultant Led Unit or a home birth. But you can choose a different hospital as well if you wish. Clients from the area often choose Barnet Hospital, Princess Alexander in Harlow, even The Rosie in Cambridge or UCLH in central London.

There are a lot of things to consider when choosing a place to give birth. Maternity statistics for the locations you are thinking of giving birth in are so important, so you can get an accurate picture of birth outcomes in recent months for the local maternity units.

What are the C-section or Induction rates? Why are they so high? It is an opportunity to ask your care providers why the use of the Midwife Led Unit is so low?

Place of birth is a key choice for women because where a woman gives birth will likely affect how she gives birth. - A mixed-methods study of women’s birthplace preferences and decisions in England - ScienceDirect

It can be a bit of a pain to transfer your care to another NHS trust after your care has started, particularly later on in pregnancy – but it is possible and it is never too late to transfer. And, although not ideal at all, if you went into labour whilst you were on holiday in a different part of the country for example, a maternity unit wouldn’t turn you away.

Why is it important to research maternity statistics?

We don’t do anything these days or go anywhere new before looking at the reviews and really understanding what we’ll experience. It is even more important to do this for birth. Giving birth to your baby is the biggest day of your lives. It is an impact on you both forever.

We’ve been conditioned into believing that there is nothing we can do to make our labour and birth journeys better, to take control. But that is not true, there is so much we can do to change the way we’re conditioned into giving birth.

When you are booking a holiday, you look at reviews for the location and hotel don’t you?

When you’re researching a restaurant to try, you look at the reviews?

It is quite hard to get accurate and up to date service user reviews of maternity units, but the statistics that are posted monthly can give you a good idea of what giving birth looks like. You can look up your local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership, who may share their maternity statistics, like Lister Hospital do. Alternatively, you can search for them here: The Maternity Services Dashboard

Do you know the induction rate, how many people are having inductions, the C-section rate, how many people are having C-sections. How many water births there are at the place you hope to give birth in? This information paints a picture of the maternity services at that hospital.

How many people are choosing home births? This gives you an idea of how much home birth is supported by the NHS in that local area.

Locally, you can see if there is much difference between different hospitals, and it can help you in your decision making.

The monthly statistics for the whole of the UK is updated on this website Maternity Services Monthly Statistics - NHS England Digital

Lister Hospital CQC Report findings

In October 2022, the CQC conducted an inspection which resulted in the maternity care rating for Lister Hospital, run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, dropping from Good to Inadequate. See the report CQC report here.

Since then, the trust and the hospital have been working incredibly hard to improve matters, resulting in an improved rating of Requires Improvement in June 2023.

Whilst this may look like a scary finding, the improvements highlight a commitment to further improvements across the board in local maternity services. It is also important to note that maternity services across the board are looking pretty similar.

This does not mean that the service is not safe, but the inspections found room for improvement. As with Ofsted and schools, there are issues with the methods of inspections too.

But it serves further to highlight how important it is to do research; understand birth and the system you enter into. And to understand that you need to be the most important person in your story – to take control of all the things you can control.

What's the most important thing when choosing where to give birth?

Ultimately, the most important thing to consider when choosing where to give birth is choosing a place where you feel most comfortable.

Whilst we know the evidence for home births is very good, and we know the evidence for giving birth in a consultant led unit when you don’t have a medical need to will likely lead to unnecessary interventions – if you feel more comfortable in a consultant led unit then that is where you should choose to give birth!

We need to start thinking critically about our options for giving birth, and why certain opinions filter through into the mass subconscious. But at 30+ weeks pregnant it might not be the right time for you to be looking into the

You always have choices, you always have options.

But our bodies are SO capable. With the trust, the knowledge and the education you CAN have an amazing birth experience.

That's why we have our Antenatal Course (both in person and online), Refresher Antenatal Course (both in person and online), and our Birth Partner course so that everybody can get knowledgeable and confident for birth.

Refresher Antenatal Course in person

Refresher Antenatal Course online

Birth Partner course (included in our Antenatal course)

Antenatal Course in person

Antenatal Course online

Lister Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership birth statistics 2024