FOI220630: Maternity Services – birth data and antenatal classes information

Released 9 December 2022

Request:

1. Number of births for each of your maternity hospitals Jan-Dec 2020 & Jan-Dec 2021, and any linked birth centres for the same periods.
2. Number of attendances of antenatal classes under the care of your Trust for the same periods.

Information disclosed:

Please note University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has been in operation since 1 April 2021, following the merger of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Whilst we are in the process of aligning services under the merged Trust, our Maternity services continue to function individually to ensure there is no disruption to these services and our response reflects this.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Our response relative to Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton (RSCH) and Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath (PRH) is provided below.

Please note that neither RSCH nor PRH have birth centres, and this is reflected in the table.

Antenatal classes were suspended between January and October 2020 as a consequence of the Covid pandemic. We have therefore provided figures below only for when the service was in operation. Please note all classes relevant to PRH and RSCH during the period of your request were “Virtual Classes” taking place online. 

Between November and December 2020, 74 people attended virtual antenatal classes.

Between January and December 2021, 1095 people attended virtual antenatal classes.

Our response relative to St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester (SRH) and Worthing Hospital, Worthing (WH) is provided below:

Antenatal classes ran between January to March 13th 2020 at these hospitals. Classes were subsequently suspended as a consequence of the Covid pandemic and did not resume until July 2022.

Between January and March 2020, 270 people attended antenatal classes.