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You and Your Baby Survey

Published on Thursday, 10 December 2020

Have you seen the adverts for this year's You and Your Baby Survey? Do you know anyone who could fill it in? 2020 has been an incredibly challenging time to be pregnant and give birth and we want to make sure everyone who has been affected gets the opportunity to contribute.

Anyone who gave birth in the UK between March and August this year is invited to take part in You and Your Baby. As well as the usual questions on topics such as physical and mental wellbeing, infant feeding, lifestyle, and the care and support available, we are asking women about their experiences of being pregnant and giving birth during the pandemic, and about how COVID-19 has impacted their health and the care they have received.

You and Your Baby is the latest National Maternity Survey. These surveys are an important part of our work with the Department of Health and Social Care and we run them every few years. This means we can capture a snapshot of health and care in a particular period and also look at how things like health, care and lifestyle have changed over time by comparing the new results with previous years, as similar questions are included in each survey.

The information that women share in the surveys is used in many different ways. Some of the results from previous maternity surveys were used to help develop the Better Births Report and the Maternity Transformation Programme and, more recently, women's experiences from the last maternity survey fed into the new 6-week postnatal check policy for GPs.

16,000 women who gave birth in May this year have been sent details of You and Your Baby by the Office for National Statistics, which collects information on birth registrations. We've also advertised for women who gave birth any time between March and August this year on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We know there are lots of personal stories, and smaller pieces of research, about the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. You and Your Baby is our chance to draw all this together to get a more complete picture of the journey from pregnancy to early parenthood during the pandemic and explore women's experiences in more depth to inform policy and improve care.

So we'd be very grateful if you could share this blog, and the survey, with anyone eligible to fill it in. The survey does focus on NHS maternity care but it's still relevant to anyone who chose to use some private care or who gave birth at home. There are free text spaces to allow women to share any care choices and experiences they feel are relevant.

You and Your Baby closes at the end of January next year and a full report of the findings will be published later in 2021. Any questions, please contact the research team on Freephone 0808 252 4566 or sian.harrison@npeu.ox.ac.uk.

Updated: Thursday, 10 December 2020 14:45 (v6)