Obstetric Anaesthetic Standard
Each year, more than 700,000 babies are born in hospitals in the UK, and around 60% of these involve input from anaesthetists. Anaesthetists working in maternity services contribute to the multidisciplinary team to plan and provide care particularly to those patients with health conditions and complex needs.
Anaesthetists also administer specialist methods of pain relief in labour such as epidurals, as well as providing anaesthesia for surgical procedures such as caesarean sections.
Despite anaesthetics being used in more than half of all UK hospital births, there is very little national data on the use of anaesthesia in maternity care. Where data is available, it is often inconsistently coded which makes meaningful analysis to identify patterns, trends and opportunities for improvement difficult.
Current release
Version: V1.1.0 | |||
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Release date | March 2026 | ||
Status | Draft pending endorsement | ||
Commissioner | Obstetric Anaesthetists’ Association (OAA) | ||
The standard | |
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The standard model | Download file (xlsx) |
V1.1.0 Release notes | Links to SNOMED CT codes added to value set column in information model where relevant. |
Supporting documentation | Description/purpose |
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Value sets | PRSB owned and managed value sets (SNOMED codes) that support the implementation of this information standard. |
Visual summary | A visual layout showing the structure of the standard and its contents. |
Final report | Describes the purpose, methodolgy and stakeholder engagement for developing the standard, along with the findings and recommendations for further work. |
Need implementation support?
- Online support form
- Support@theprsb.org
- 020 4551 5225 (9-5 Mon-Fri, excl. bank holidays)
About this standard
This standard is intended to complement the Digital Maternity Standard and should be used alongside it.
We were commissioned by the Obstetric Anaesthetists’ Association (OAA) to research and develop an information standard to enable the introduction of a national dataset for anaesthesia in maternity settings.
The standard outlines the minimum dataset needed to improve care and quality outcomes for obstetric anaesthetic services and support evidence-based policy making. Our work builds on the OAA’s National Obstetric Anaesthetic Database (NOAD), which was previously used to audit patterns of practice and complications of anaesthesia, and existing OAA research into key quality indicators identified as being most relevant to obstetric anaesthesia.
Further resources
- Standards explained
PRSB’s guide to standards which sets out the purpose and benefits of using standards and how to support frontline professionals to adopt them.
- IHRIM record correction guidance
Despite vigilance when filing information in records, mistakes can occur. The Institute of Health Records and Information Management has guidance to support professionals in making corrections following errors.
Endorsement
This standard has been endorsed by the following organisations:
The endorsement phase is ongoing, and additional endorsing organisations will be added to this page as they are confirmed.