Are weekend babies safe?

Published on: 01/12/2015

Many of you may have seen worrying headlines last week claiming that babies born at the weekend are less safe than those born during the week.  These reports are based on an article published in the BMJ last week by researchers at Imperial College London who compared the outcomes of babies in terms of perinatal death (stillbirth and neonatal death within the first 7 days of life) and other complications by day of the week that they were born on.  This was an observational study based on an analysis of deliveries in English NHS public services from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2012 from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database.

Although it is true that they found a variation in the rates of deaths and complications from one day to another (with Monday and Tuesday being particularly low and Thursday being the highest), the researchers themselves were keen to stress that definitive conclusions cannot be drawn about cause and effect at this stage and that several other factors (not accounted for) may have influenced the findings.  Other experts have highlighted that information such as gestational age and duration of labour are not provided in some or all cases, which will obviously have a significant impact on the results.

We here at MAMA Academy join with experts at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and others who have sought to reassure women that the UK is a safe place to give birth but call for further research to be conducted in this area.  If there are ways in which we can make any deliveries safer we must do all we can to find them.

Dr David Richmond, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said: “Although no definitive conclusions can be drawn from these results, they emphasise the need to identify the possible causes in order to ensure that women are receiving high-quality care at any given day of the week.  The UK is a safe place for women to give birth, however pressure on maternity services is growing.”

We would also like to remind our readers that you can contact your maternity unit AT ANY TIME with any concerns, even at weekends. There will always be midwives on hand to help you.

 

Read a BMJ press release on the original research here

For more information on the limitations of the research see here and here

To read the RCOG response, see here