Mapping midwifery and obstetric units in England

Denis Walsh; Helen Spiby; Celia Grigg; Miranda Dodwell; Christine McCourt; Lorraine  Culley; Simon Bishop; Jane  Wilkinson; Dawn Coleby; Lynne Pacanowski; Jim Thornton; Sonia Byers

doi:10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009

Mapping midwifery and obstetric units in England

Denis Walsh, Helen Spiby, Celia Grigg, Miranda Dodwell, Christine McCourt, Lorraine Culley, Simon Bishop, Jane Wilkinson, Dawn Coleby, Lynne Pacanowski, Jim Thornton, Sonia Byers

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To describe the configuration of midwifery units, both alongside&free-standing, and obstetric units in England.DESIGN:National survey amongst Heads of Midwifery in English Maternity Services SETTING: National Health Service (NHS) in England PARTICIPANTS: English Maternity Services Measurements descriptive statistics of Alongside Midwifery Units and Free-standing Midwifery Units and Obstetric Units and their annual births/year in English Maternity Services FINDINGS: alongside midwifery units have nearly doubled since 2010 (n = 53-97); free-standing midwifery units have increased slightly (n = 58-61). There has been a significant reduction in maternity services without either an alongside or free-standing midwifery unit (75-32). The percentage of all births in midwifery units has trebled, now representing 14% of all births in England. This masks significant differences in percentage of all births in midwifery units between different maternity services with a spread of 4% to 31%.KEY CONCLUSIONS:In some areas of England, women have no access to a local midwifery unit, despite the National Institute for Health&Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending them as an important place of birth option for low risk women. The numbers of midwifery units have increased significantly in England since 2010 but this growth is almost exclusively in alongside midwifery units. The percentage of women giving birth in midwifery units varies significantly between maternity services suggesting that many midwifery units are underutilised.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Both the availability and utilisation of midwifery units in England could be improved.
Publisher Statement: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Midwifery. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Midwifery, [56, (2017)] DOI: 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	9-16
Number of pages	8
Journal	Midwifery
Volume	56
Early online date	21 Sept 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009
Publication status	Published - Jan 2018
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Midwifery units
Obstetric units
Survey
Births

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10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009

MU_mapping_final_paper_revisions_final_6.9.17Accepted author manuscript, 926 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "Mapping midwifery and obstetric units in England",

abstract = "OBJECTIVE:To describe the configuration of midwifery units, both alongside&free-standing, and obstetric units in England.DESIGN:National survey amongst Heads of Midwifery in English Maternity Services SETTING: National Health Service (NHS) in England PARTICIPANTS: English Maternity Services Measurements descriptive statistics of Alongside Midwifery Units and Free-standing Midwifery Units and Obstetric Units and their annual births/year in English Maternity Services FINDINGS: alongside midwifery units have nearly doubled since 2010 (n = 53-97); free-standing midwifery units have increased slightly (n = 58-61). There has been a significant reduction in maternity services without either an alongside or free-standing midwifery unit (75-32). The percentage of all births in midwifery units has trebled, now representing 14% of all births in England. This masks significant differences in percentage of all births in midwifery units between different maternity services with a spread of 4% to 31%.KEY CONCLUSIONS:In some areas of England, women have no access to a local midwifery unit, despite the National Institute for Health&Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending them as an important place of birth option for low risk women. The numbers of midwifery units have increased significantly in England since 2010 but this growth is almost exclusively in alongside midwifery units. The percentage of women giving birth in midwifery units varies significantly between maternity services suggesting that many midwifery units are underutilised.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Both the availability and utilisation of midwifery units in England could be improved.Publisher Statement: NOTICE: this is the author{\textquoteright}s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Midwifery. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Midwifery, [56, (2017)] DOI: 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009 {\textcopyright} 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",

keywords = "Midwifery units, Obstetric units, Survey, Births",

author = "Denis Walsh and Helen Spiby and Celia Grigg and Miranda Dodwell and Christine McCourt and Lorraine Culley and Simon Bishop and Jane Wilkinson and Dawn Coleby and Lynne Pacanowski and Jim Thornton and Sonia Byers",

year = "2018",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009",

language = "English",

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pages = "9--16",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Mapping midwifery and obstetric units in England

AU - Walsh, Denis

AU - Spiby, Helen

AU - Grigg, Celia

AU - Dodwell, Miranda

AU - McCourt, Christine

AU - Culley, Lorraine

AU - Bishop, Simon

AU - Wilkinson, Jane

AU - Coleby, Dawn

AU - Pacanowski, Lynne

AU - Thornton, Jim

AU - Byers, Sonia

PY - 2018/1

Y1 - 2018/1

N2 - OBJECTIVE:To describe the configuration of midwifery units, both alongside&free-standing, and obstetric units in England.DESIGN:National survey amongst Heads of Midwifery in English Maternity Services SETTING: National Health Service (NHS) in England PARTICIPANTS: English Maternity Services Measurements descriptive statistics of Alongside Midwifery Units and Free-standing Midwifery Units and Obstetric Units and their annual births/year in English Maternity Services FINDINGS: alongside midwifery units have nearly doubled since 2010 (n = 53-97); free-standing midwifery units have increased slightly (n = 58-61). There has been a significant reduction in maternity services without either an alongside or free-standing midwifery unit (75-32). The percentage of all births in midwifery units has trebled, now representing 14% of all births in England. This masks significant differences in percentage of all births in midwifery units between different maternity services with a spread of 4% to 31%.KEY CONCLUSIONS:In some areas of England, women have no access to a local midwifery unit, despite the National Institute for Health&Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending them as an important place of birth option for low risk women. The numbers of midwifery units have increased significantly in England since 2010 but this growth is almost exclusively in alongside midwifery units. The percentage of women giving birth in midwifery units varies significantly between maternity services suggesting that many midwifery units are underutilised.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Both the availability and utilisation of midwifery units in England could be improved.Publisher Statement: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Midwifery. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Midwifery, [56, (2017)] DOI: 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009 © 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

AB - OBJECTIVE:To describe the configuration of midwifery units, both alongside&free-standing, and obstetric units in England.DESIGN:National survey amongst Heads of Midwifery in English Maternity Services SETTING: National Health Service (NHS) in England PARTICIPANTS: English Maternity Services Measurements descriptive statistics of Alongside Midwifery Units and Free-standing Midwifery Units and Obstetric Units and their annual births/year in English Maternity Services FINDINGS: alongside midwifery units have nearly doubled since 2010 (n = 53-97); free-standing midwifery units have increased slightly (n = 58-61). There has been a significant reduction in maternity services without either an alongside or free-standing midwifery unit (75-32). The percentage of all births in midwifery units has trebled, now representing 14% of all births in England. This masks significant differences in percentage of all births in midwifery units between different maternity services with a spread of 4% to 31%.KEY CONCLUSIONS:In some areas of England, women have no access to a local midwifery unit, despite the National Institute for Health&Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending them as an important place of birth option for low risk women. The numbers of midwifery units have increased significantly in England since 2010 but this growth is almost exclusively in alongside midwifery units. The percentage of women giving birth in midwifery units varies significantly between maternity services suggesting that many midwifery units are underutilised.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Both the availability and utilisation of midwifery units in England could be improved.Publisher Statement: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Midwifery. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Midwifery, [56, (2017)] DOI: 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009 © 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

KW - Midwifery units

KW - Obstetric units

KW - Survey

KW - Births

U2 - 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009

DO - 10.1016/j.midw.2017.09.009

M3 - Article

SN - 0266-6138

SN - 1532-3099

VL - 56

SP - 9

EP - 16

JO - Midwifery

JF - Midwifery

ER -

Mapping midwifery and obstetric units in England

Abstract

Keywords

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