The new national maternity and perinatal audit (NMPA)is using routinely collected data to improve maternity care. Tina Harris and Andrea Blotkamp explain more.The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) have commissioned the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, (in collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) to undertake a National Maternity and Perinatal Audit across England, Scotland and Wales. Funded for 3 years, the audit will encompass the care of healthy women and babies as well as those with complex conditions or circumstances. This paper discusses the value of auditing maternity services to explore variation in care delivery and how the audit will undertake this project. This includes the first organisational survey of maternity services across three countries and the collection of data from all units delivering maternity services in the three countries via their maternity information systems for analysis.

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