Identifying and categorising the nature of NHS service provision and associated costs of care for mothers and children during the perinatal period

The perinatal period (from conception until one or two years after the birth of the child) represents an incredibly important time in the lives of both mothers and their children, with the care provided having long-term implications for both. It is also the period when people use NHS services the most outside of their final years, with a caesarean section alone costing over £10,000 in some cases.

However, while we know a lot about the cost of delivering individual parts of this care, such as midwife appointments and delivery itself, we know very little about what the full period looks like. This includes questions around how mother and child service use compares, and who accesses services more or less than others. BiBBS gives us the unique ability to understand how women and their children are using NHS care and how evenly this use is distributed across key factors such as age, ethnicity, and deprivation.

The aim of this research is to bring together all of the information about how mothers and their children receive care over this vital period and to increase our understanding of how equally care is provided and some of the key factors that are driving any differences.