Maternity services

All regions and NHS trusts

What is shown here?

We do not grade maternity care: we show CQC’s ratings, CQC’s survey scores and NHS England’s figures for births. Trusts care for different women: a specialist unit takes the most complex pregnancies from a wide area, so a figure on its own says little about the care.

CQC’s rating. The regulator judges each hospital’s maternity service Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate, overall and on safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Each page gives the date CQC published it, which can be years ago.

The Maternity Survey. CQC scores each answer from 0 to 10 and averages them for the trust, adjusted for the mothers’ age and whether it was their first baby. CQC’s comparison says whether a trust’s CQC score lies outside the range a trust of its size would reach by chance, if its care were like most trusts’.

Births. How many women gave birth in July 2026, and how: without help, with forceps or ventouse, or by caesarean. How babies are born depends on the women a unit cares for: their age, their health, whether it is a first baby, and whether the unit takes the most complex pregnancies. A higher or lower caesarean share is not better or worse in itself, so these figures are never in any order.

Common questions about maternity services

Can I choose where to have my baby?

Yes. In England you can choose where to give birth: at home, in a midwife-led unit or in a hospital labour ward, and at a hospital other than your nearest. Talk to your midwife early in the pregnancy.

Where to give birth: the options (nhs.uk)

What do CQC’s ratings mean?

CQC, the regulator, inspects each hospital’s maternity service and rates it Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate, overall and on five questions: is it safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Of the 208 NHS maternity units CQC rates, 6 are Outstanding, 107 Good, 86 Requires improvement and 8 Inadequate. Some of CQC’s ratings are years old: each page gives the date.

CQC’s data

What is the Maternity Survey?

CQC asks women who gave birth in February 2025 about their care in pregnancy, labour and after the birth. 16,755 women at 119 NHS trusts answered the 2025 survey, published 10 December 2025.

CQC Maternity Survey 2025

Is this a league table of maternity units?

No. There is no list for England as a whole and no list from the bottom. A region page orders its own trusts by one CQC survey score, highest first, with CQC’s comparison beside each. Births and caesarean shares are never put in order: units care for different women.

How many babies are born in England each month?

NHS maternity services in England recorded 42,435 women giving birth in July 2026; 47% of births were by caesarean and 27% of labours were induced.

Maternity Services Monthly Statistics

Where do the figures come from?

CQC’s ratings and the CQC Maternity Survey, and NHS England’s Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, all under the Open Government Licence.

All our sources