2014 Survey
The 2014 National Maternity Survey explored the health and experiences of maternity care for women who gave birth in England in January 2014. The survey recruited women through the Office for National Statistics using the register of all births in England. Women were invited to take part in the survey three months after giving birth and a total of 4,571 women returned postal or online questionnaires, a response rate of 47%.
The 2014 National Maternity Survey found that, compared with earlier surveys, women were realising they were pregnant and seeing a health professional earlier, with 96% seeking care by 12 weeks. The findings showed high uptake of screening, greater awareness of options for care, and active seeking of information about pregnancy and birth. The findings also showed that postnatal hospital stays were continuing to get shorter and the number of postnatal visits was declining. Overall satisfaction with care remained high although, as in earlier surveys, satisfaction with postnatal care was lower than that for antenatal care or care during labour and birth.
A report of the overall findings from the 2014 National Maternity Survey (“Safely delivered”) is available to download here:
