Childhood mortality and free standing midwifery units

You asked:

Please could you provide the number of;

a) intrapartum deaths;

b) early neonatal;

c) late neonatal deaths;

that occurred in babies whose mother’s labour commenced in a free standing midwifery unit along with the denominator data (total number of births commencing labour in a free standing unit) for the following years:

2014
2015
2016
2017

We said:

Thank you for your enquiry.

We publish neonatal and infant death figures in our childhood mortality statistics and birth cohort tables for infant deaths publications. These figures are based on number of deaths that occurred in the calendar year. The years are available at the links below. The latest data available for childhood mortality statistics is for 2015. The data for 2016 will be published in March this year (provisional) and the data for 2017 will be made available next year. Moreover, the latest data available for birth cohort tables is for 2014. The data for 2015 will be published in March this year (provisional) and the data for 2016 will be published next year.

Childhood mortality statistics:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/childmortalitystatisticschildhoodinfantandperinatalchildhoodinfantandperinatalmortalityinenglandandwales

Birth cohort tables for infant deaths:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/birthcohorttablesforinfantdeaths

In addition, neonatal mortality figures based on the number of deaths registered in a calendar year are available in table 4 of our Death registrations summary tables - England and Wales publication. This data is different than the child mortality statistics and birth cohort data as it based on registrations not occurrences (so any delayed registrations would not be included in the figures). The latest data available is for 2016. Please see the link below.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathregistrationssummarytablesenglandandwalesreferencetables

We have live births and stillbirths figures in our childhood mortality statistics, birth cohort tables for infant deaths and death registrations summary tables publications. You can collate total birth figures by adding live births and stillbirths.

We have intrapartum indicator for stillbirths but unfortunately, we do not have this indicator available for deaths in our data. We also only hold the data for place of birth or death, not where the mother's labour began. The mother's labour could begin in one location, but either she or the infant could be transferred elsewhere in the time before the neonatal death. Therefore, we do not have figures for free standing midwifery unit but we can provide you with figures for early neonatal and late neonatal deaths for communal establishments such as care home, hospital etc. Such information can be obtained from the customer services team of the Vital Statistics Outputs Branch. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries should be made to:

Vital Statistics Outputs Branch
Office for National Statistics
Segensworth Road
Titchfield
Fareham
Hampshire
PO15 5RR
Tel: +44 (0)1329 444 110
E-mail: vsob@ons.gov.uk

Moreover, NHS Digital contains some data on place of delivery such as consultant ward, GP ward etc. Please see the link below.

https://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30137

If you would like any further information, you can contact the team directly at: vsob@ons.gov.uk