Maternity services statistics

​​​​​​​Request ​813076584

For the year 2025, I request the following maternity services statistics: 

1) Total number of births in Jersey Of this number: 

2) What percentage of women went into labour entirely spontaneously (ie. no induction) 

3) What percentage of women had their labours induced 

4) Of those women who were induced, what percentage of them then went on to give birth via caesarean section 

5) What was the total percentage of caesarean sections 

6) Please then break number 5 down further into a) elective caesarean section (i.e. category 4) and b) emergency/unplanned caesarean (i.e. categories 1-3) 

7) What was the percentage of women giving birth at home 

8) What percentage of women used the ‘midwifery led’ birthing rooms 

9) What percentage of LOW RISK women gave birth in the birthing pool and what percentage of MODERATE OR HIGH RISK women gave birth in the birthing pool 

10) What was the percentage of postpartum haemmorhage - please split this into two categories of a) 500-1000ml and b) above 1000ml 

11) What was the percentage of entirely spontaneous vaginal birth 

12) What was the percentage of instrumental birth (forceps/ventouse) 

And regarding community midwifery care: 

1) What percentage of women received antenatal continuity of care (i.e. seeing one named midwife throughout their antenatal care) 

2) What percentage of women received postnatal continuity of care (i.e. seeing one named midwife throughout their postnatal care) 

Regarding antenatal clinic care: 

1) What percentage of women had their dating ultrasound scan between 11-12 weeks gestation

2) What percentage of women had their dating ultrasound scan between 12-13 weeks gestation 

3) What percentage of women had their dating ultrasound scan between 13-14 weeks gestation

Response

1

The total number of births recorded through Health and Care Jersey (HCJ) is available in the HCJ Advisory Board papers on www.gov.je. Data for 2025 can be found on page 145 of the February 2026 Board papers at the following link:

HCJ Advisory Board Part A Meeting Papers February 2026.pdf

The total number of births registered annually in Jersey is published by the Office of the Superintendent Registrar. Data for 2025 can be found at the link below:

SIR Annual Statement 2025.pdf​

As information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

2

23.6 % of women went into labour entirely spontaneously.

3

The percentage of women whose labours were induced is available in the HCJ Advisory Board papers, as linked above. As information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

4

9.3 % of women who were induced went on to give birth via caesarean section

5 and 6

The percentage of deliveries by caesarean section is available in the HCJ Advisory Board papers, as linked above. Data are provided for both elective and emergency caesarean section rates. Therefore, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

7

There were two home births in 2025; this includes planned and unplanned home births.

8

The room in which women birth is not routinely recorded; midwives may - depending on individual practice - record the room women are seen in within individual case notes, however, this is not required or routine practice. ‘Low risk’ women may also choose to birth in the obstetric room due to pool availability, should the midwifery led unit be occupied.

As such, records are not held to report the requested information. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

9

It is not possible to discern where women birthed in relation to their assessed risk status from central records held. A full audit of individual case notes would be required to identify the requested information. The resource required to manually review records to identify and extract data on both risk status and delivery location would exceed the timescales prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

10

Percentage of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) recorded in 2025:

• ​PPH of 500 to 999 ml: 30 %
• PPH of 1000 ml or greater: 15 %

11

The percentage of spontaneous vaginal births is available in the HCJ Advisory Board papers, as linked above. Therefore, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

12

The percentage of instrumental births is available in the HCJ Advisory Board papers, as linked above. Therefore, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Regarding community midwifery care:

1 and 2

The percentage of women receiving antenatal continuity of care by a single midwife is not available to report from central records, nor is the percentage of women receiving postnatal continuity of care by a single midwife.

The resource required to manually review individual case notes of all women who received care in 2025 to identify the requested information would exceed the timescales prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

There are occasions when women require antenatal care from midwives and their GP or Antenatal Clinic. Post-natal care following discharge is largely provided by community midwives, with input when required from the Maternity Unit.

Regarding antenatal clinic care:

1

4 % of women had their combined screening scans between 11 and 12 weeks gestation.

2

49 % of women had their combined screening scans between 12 and 13 weeks gestation.

3

47 % of women had their combined screening scans between 13 and 14 weeks gestation.

Articles applied

Article 3 Meaning of “information held by a public authority” 

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if – 

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or 

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive 

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means 

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge. 

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.​

Internal Review Request

The Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking data relating to pregnancies, deliveries and postnatal care in 2025 was received by Health and are Jersey (HCJ) on 16 March 2026. A response was provided to the applicant on 14 May 2026.

Following receipt of the FOI response, the applicant requested an Internal Review on 19 May 2026 querying the accuracy of the data provided and that already published which was signposted in the response.

The applicant contacted the Central FOI Unit to request an Internal Review, as follows:

“Dear FOI team,

You previously responded to a FOI request relating to 2025 Jersey Maternity statistics. In your response, you directed me to HCJ Advisory Board Part A Meeting Papers February 2026. In that document, the types of birth for the year 2025 are broken down as the following:

* Spontaneous vaginal births: 24.7% of total births

* Instrumental births: 10% of total births

* Caesarean sections: 48.6% for the year.

The above totals 83.3% and therefore there are 16.7% of births missing from the above data.

Please can you clarify whether this is an error and subsequently provide correct statistics, or

explain what the missing 16.7% of births are in terms of type of birth.

Furthermore, your response stated that only 2 babies in total were born at home in 2025. This

figure is incorrect as I am aware of at least 3 babies that were born at home in 2025 (my own baby included in this). Please can the correct statistic therefore be provided.

Many thanks”

Internal Review Response

On 01 June 2026 the HCJ Director of Midwifery and the HCJ Information Governance Manager were asked to undertake the Internal Review. Neither party had been involved in composing or approving the original response.

The Internal Review was coordinated and administered by the HCJ FOI Officer, and took place at Jersey General Hospital on 12 June 2026. The in-scope FOI response, the Internal Review request and the Internal Review Procedure were shared with both reviewers on this day.

Both the HCJ Director of Midwifery and the HCJ Information Governance Manager were asked to consider whether:

• ​the Freedom of Information request had been handled appropriately
• it is possible to provide you with any further information, and

They will also provide an outcome of the internal review by stating whether:

• ​the original decision is upheld, or
• the original decision is reversed in part or in full, or
• the original decision is modified

____________________________________________________________________________________

Was the request handled appropriately and is it possible to provide you with any further information?

Regarding the query of the figures published in the HCJ Advisory Board papers

The applicant has queried the correctness of the 2025 annual data published in the February 2026 HCJ Advisory Board papers, as signposted in the Freedom of Information response, where the percentage breakdown of births do not total 100%. The discrepancy relates to an issue with the Electronic Patient Record system, as detailed in the September 2025 HCJ Advisory Board papers (p.46):

“Maternity KPIs for July and August 2025 have been suppressed. A bug in MAXIMS Smart Forms / ICPs (affecting data captured from 29 April until the patch was applied on 11 August) led to incomplete or missing information in the system. Although only a small proportion of forms were confirmed to be affected, the impact on reporting is significant, particularly for the mid-July to mid-August BCP period, when paper forms were in use.

As the missing data cannot be restored and interim paper forms do not provide a complete dataset, the information for this period is not reliable for KPI reporting….”

As noted, figures cannot be reliably reported for the full year, and the published figures represent the records held for deliveries in respect of all recorded births.

Regarding the query on accuracy of the home birth figures reported

The applicant has communicated a concern of discrepancy between the figures on home births provided in HCJ’s response and information known to them personally.

The Freedom of Information response has reported the figures recorded by HCJ for home births, as per the Electronic Patient Record system. System limitations allow for a single location to be recorded for all stages of labour / delivery; where care has been transferred from home to hospital, it is possible that the location is recorded as ‘hospital’ and such cases would not be reported as home births.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome

It was agreed that HCJ appropriately handled the original response and that the information contained therein was accurate, as far as records held allow. Therefore, the original decision is upheld.