The data presented here are obtained from the Scottish Morbidity Record 02 (SMR02) which is submitted by maternity hospitals to ISD, who have collected this information since 1975.

A wide range of information is collected on the SMR02 - some of which are detailed below:

• mother - age, height, smoking history, previous obstetric history.
• birth - induction, analgesia, method of delivery, outcome.
• baby - apgar score, sex, gestation, weight.

Although there is no legal requirement to submit these data to ISD, the level of submission falls only slightly short of the known  total number of births occurring each year. As a result, Scotland has some of the best information on  pregnancy and births available.

There is a delay in updating the data due to incomplete SMR02 data submission.  The latest published data covers the period to March 2005 and since we are unable to comply with the  National Statistics   guidelines, we are unable to provide an estimate for the next update.  ISD are working with the NHS Board concerned to resolve this.

GROS vs SMR02

For year end March 2005 there were 52,721 live births recorded on SMR02 records.  For the same time period there were 53,849 live births registered with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).  The shortfall is approximately 2 percent and the majority of this is due to incomplete data submissions from maternity units with the remainder due to a variety of reasons including home births and births in Non-NHS hospitals.  Further details can be found on our notes page . 

Click on information on the left hand menu to access the full list of tables and charts.