General description

Gestational age at initial assessment:
Some women may have had their first initial assessment before the date that has been recorded in the Maternity Indicators dataset. This is because the merging methodology for the initial assessment and birth record is based on when these occur in the same health board. It is possible that a mother could have an initial assessment in one health board, early in the pregnancy, but then if she gives birth in another health board for any reason (for example, unexpected complications, or present in a different health board area at the time) she will have another initial assessment recorded at the second health board where she gives birth. This may explain the small peak around 39 and 40 weeks in the data.

Mental health conditions reported at initial assessment:
While more than 90% of records had valid data for this data item, across most health boards, in most years, there are some data quality issues. Only 56% of records for Cardiff and Vale had valid data in 2016 and 88% in Hywel Dda between 2016 and 2018 and in 2020. Data recorded in Betsi Cadwaladr and Cwm Taf Morgannwg appears to have been recorded on a different basis to other health boards, across all years and therefore data for these health boards are excluded from the Wales total figures.

BMI at initial assessment:
More than 90% of records had valid data for both height and weight data items, across all health boards, in most years. The exceptions are: Cwm Taf in 2016 (77%) and in 2019 (88%); and Betsi Cadwaladr in 2019 (89%).
Data for BMI is calculated based on heights and weights of the mother; however, records where the weight was below 30kg or above 250kg and/or where height was under 120cm or above 200cm have been excluded from the analysis, as measurements outside of these thresholds are unlikely to be reliable. Also, this analysis only includes mothers whose initial assessment was completed at 14 completed weeks of pregnancy or earlier. This filter is applied as weight measurements for mothers who have initial assessments in the later stages of pregnancy will be affected by the growth of the baby.

Full details of every data item available on both the Maternity Indicators dataset and National Community Child Health Database are available through the NWIS Data Dictionary: http://www.datadictionary.wales.nhs.uk/#!WordDocuments/datasetstructure20.htm

From 1st April 2019 health service provision for residents of Bridgend local authority moved from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg to Cwm Taf. For more information see the joint statement from Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Boards (see weblinks). The health board names have changed with Cwm Taf University Health Board becoming Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board becoming Swansea Bay University Health Board.
Data for Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Cwm Taf are available for previous years in this table by selecting the tick boxes in the Area drop-down box.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Title

Initial assessment indicators by mother's age, Wales

Last update

July 2024 July 2024

Next update

July 2025 (provisional)

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Maternity Indicators data set

Contact email

stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Wales

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

https://gov.wales/maternity-and-birth-statistics
https://cwmtaf.wales/welsh-government-announce-decision-on-bridgend-boundary-change/
https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-board-boundary-bridgend-associated-planning

Keywords

maternity; initial assessment; gestation; mental health; BMI

Statistical quality

More detailed information on the sources of data and analyses in this statistical release are provided in the quality report: https://gov.wales/maternity-and-birth-statistics-quality-report

Name

HLTH1220