Unassisted deliveries

What this data shows:

An unassisted delivery is  when a women gives birth to a baby without labour being induced, oxytocin is not given to the mother, an no artificial rupture of membranes takes place     

Data Source:

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Data Period:

Annual 2017/18

Further Information:

Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, additional figures (with the least overall data loss) have been suppressed in order to protect patient confidentiality.

Normal / unassisted delivery

• spontaneous onset of labour
• method of delivery: spontaneous vertex/cephalic
• episiotomy is not carried out

Health and Social Care Information Centre maternity dataset definition for Normal Delivery:A spontaneous vaginal birth where:

• labour is not induced
• oxytocin is not given to the mother
• method of delivery is spontaneous vaginal (excludes caesarean, use of forceps, vacuum extraction)
• no artificial rupture of membranes
• medicated pain relief assistance (ie narcotics, regional anaesthesia, perineal infiltration) is not given to the mother
• episiotomy is not carried out

Some of these criteria are not recorded in HES. Therefore we are unable to determine which deliveries are 'normal'. Instead we have defined 'unassisted deliveries' which are intended to be an interim measure until the maternity dataset is implemented (please contact enquiries@hscic.gov.uk for more information). These are defined by the following criteria: 

• spontaneous onset of labour
• method of delivery: spontaneous vertex/cephalic
• episiotomy is not carried out."