MBRRACE-UK: Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK | MBRRACE-UK

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MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance: Report for births in 2021

MBRRACE-UK is pleased to announce the publication of the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report for Births in 2021. This is the ninth perinatal surveillance report and the first to be presented as a concise “State of the Nation” report. The report is accompanied by a set of reference tables, a data viewer with interactive mapping, and a technical manual. The report can be accessed in the TIMMS website.

All the reports for earlier years can be downloaded from the Perinatal Mortality Surveillance page

MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives Improving Mothers' Care - Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2018-20

MBRRACE-UK is pleased to announce the publication of the MBRRACE-UK Maternal Mortality Surveillance and Confidential Enquiry Report for 2022. The report, lay summary and infographic can be downloaded on the reports page.

MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report UK Perinatal Deaths for Births from January to December 2020

MBRRACE-UK is pleased to announce the publication of the MBRRACE-UK- Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report for Births in 2020. The full report, the tables and figures, the lay report and technical document can downloaded on the reports page. The link to the interactive maps and tables is also available on the reports page.

Get your printed copy of the 'MBRRACE-UK: Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care' Report!

We are pleased to be able to let you know that printed copies of the 'MBRRACE-UK: Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care reports are now available to purchase from our online store.

Buy my copies of the printed reports now

Reporting to MBRRACE-UK continues during the COVID-19 pandemic

These are very difficult times, and we appreciate that when services are stretched keeping up with MBRRACE-UK reporting may be challenging.

Furthermore, there has been some confusion regarding the continuation of reporting to MBRRACE-UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reporting to MBRRACE-UK is continuing as it is essential to enable us to assess both the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on both maternal and perinatal mortality.

Perinatal deaths

All new notifications of perinatal deaths now include 2 additional questions in order to record a positive test for COVID-19 infection in either the mother or baby. Reporting of these deaths is time-critical.

The order of priorities for continuing to report perinatal deaths is therefore:

Ensuring that all deaths with a positive test for COVID-19 infection in the mother and/or baby are notified as soon as possible, and the surveillance form is completed as soon as possible thereafter;
Continuing to notify all other perinatal deaths.

In addition to the above, please continue with the following activities unless and until front-line clinical activities mean that there is no longer the capacity to do so:

Completion of the surveillance form for all perinatal deaths
Carrying out reviews using the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool

The Perinatal Team are unable to take telephone calls at present, but if but if have any queries please email mbrracele@npeu.ox.ac.uk with details of your query and your contact details and a member of the team will either call you back or deal with your query via email.

Maternal deaths

Notification of maternal deaths of women with a positive test for COVID-19 infection is a priority. Please ensure that you notify us of a COVID-19 related death by calling: 01865 289715. Please also ensure that the medical notes for these women are sent to us as a priority and that they are sent electronically to: orh-tr.mbrrace@nhs.net

Otherwise notification of all other maternal deaths should continue as normal. In order to notify a maternal death please call 01865 289715 and leave a voicemail with your contact details, or alternatively email your contact details to mbrrace-uk@npeu.ox.ac.uk and a member of the team will call you back as soon as possible.

The Maternal Team are continuing to request and collect medical records, but we understand that the current situation will inevitably slow things down. Where possible we ask that that medical records are sent electronically via nhs.net to orh-tr.mbrrace@nhs.net. If this is not possible, please contact the maternal team for instructions for sending via post.

Thank you for your continuing dedication and hard work.

The MBRRACE-UK Team

Signs of Life

UK clinical guidance

Determination of signs of life following spontaneous births before 24+0 weeks of gestation where, following discussion with parents, active survival-focused care is not appropriate

This guidance is to support health care professionals in the assessment and documentation of signs of life in extremely preterm births. It aims to increase the consistency of the registration of births and deaths and reduce the confusion and distress experienced by parents.

Guidance and support videos available at: https://timms.le.ac.uk/signs-of-life

November 2020

THIS IS NOT THE MBRRACE-UK ONLINE REPORTING SYSTEM. IF YOU WISH TO REPORT A CASE PLEASE GO TO: www.mbrrace.ox.ac.uk

'MBRRACE-UK' is the collaboration appointed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) to run the national Maternal, Newborn and Infant clinical Outcome Review Programme (MNI-CORP) which continues the national programme of work conducting surveillance and investigating the causes of maternal deaths, stillbirths and infant deaths.

The aim of the MNI-CORP MBRRACE-UK programme is to provide robust national information to support the delivery of safe, equitable, high quality, patient-centred maternal, newborn and infant health services.

MBRRACE-UK achieves this by:

Surveillance of all maternal deaths
Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths during and up to one year after the end of the pregnancy
Confidential enquiries into cases of serious maternal morbidity on a rolling basis
Surveillance of perinatal deaths including late fetal losses (22-23 weeks gestation), stillbirths and neonatal deaths
Confidential enquiries into stillbirths, infant deaths and cases of serious infant morbidity on a rolling basis

The scope MNI-CORP is a national programme which encompasses England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man

Duration of the programme: MBRRACE-UK were commissioned to run the programme from May 2012 to March 2017; following a further competitive re-commissioning round the programme has been extended to run until 30th September 2021.

Funding: The MNI-CORP programme is commissioned by HQIP on behalf of NHS England, NHS Wales, the Health and Social Care Division of the Scottish government, the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland (DHSSPS), the States of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.

Notifications of maternal deaths should be made by ringing the Oxford MBRRACE-UK office on 01865 289715.

Reporting of stillbirths, perinatal deaths and infant deaths is via the MBRRACE-UK online reporting system available here: www.mbrrace.ox.ac.uk. Guidelines for using the system can be downloaded here: MBRRACE online data entry guidebook (release March 2023 v1-6).

Units are asked to review their access to the internet to ensure that the web browser they are using meets the specifications required to enter data via the MBRRACE-UK system; older versions of software are not suitable as they do not meet NHS data security requirements. Please view the IT specification page to check this for your Unit.

Please also view the MBRRACE-UK IT deployment page which outlines more information about the deployment of the MBRRACE-UK data collection system and may be helpful for IT staff in Units.

Information about why we are collecting non-anonymised information and details about the approvals we have to collect this information is provided on the 'Why we need identifiers' page.

The topics selected for future confidential enquiries are available on the Topics page.

Please also see our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Assessors for the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Infant Deaths

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our panel of expert assessors for the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths and Severe Morbidities.

'A confidential enquiry is a systematic process of multi-disciplinary, anonymous review of all or a sample of defined cases occurring in a defined geographical area during a defined period of time. Where the numbers of a specific type of condition are few, for example maternal deaths, it is possible and generally necessary to review all the cases. Where numbers are large it is usual to take a sample of cases for review. The review can take place either by individual or paired reviewers or during a panel process. Comparisons of care are made against guidelines or best practice where guidelines have not been developed. The review aim is to assess the quality of care provided in each case so as to inform future practice and improvements in care which may make a difference to future outcomes'.

If you are interested in being a part of this vital work, please follow the relevant link below for more information on the roles and how to apply: