Since 2013, Trusts and Health Boards in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have submitted data to MBRRACE-UK confirming the number of babies who have died by stillbirth, during birth and neonatally. The data does not include births less than 24+0 weeks gestational age and terminations of pregnancy. There is also a lag in the data being reported, such that the 2013 data was not reported until 2015.
Yesterday (11/06/2026), MBBRACE published the state of the nation report for 2026. State of the nation report | MBRRACE-UK – This sets out the data from 2024 and confirms a 21% decrease in stillbirth and neonatal deaths in the UK since 2013.
Hospitals are grouped together in the data based on the level of service they provide (i.e. the number of births and whether there is NICU). This is because larger hospitals with NICU and neonatal surgery services are likely to be dealing with the most high risk cases and the sickest babies. It is, therefore, to be expected that there may be more deaths in these hospitals than in small hospitals which offer no specialist neonatal services.
The data shows that for stillbirths, all trusts and health boards had a stillbirth rate within 5% of the average. However, for neonatal deaths there was far more variation between Trusts and Health Boards. Looking at the data for the largest NHS Trusts and Health Boards (who have NICU and offer neonatal surgery) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had a mortality rate of 1.78 while Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust had a mortality rate of 4.13. It is this variation between the Trust’s and Health Boards which is of concern and leads to questions about why such variation exists.
Since MBRRACE-UK began in 2013, the number of babies who died shortly before, during, or soon after birth has been falling across all UK nations. In 2024, the UK extended perinatal mortality rate was 4.77 baby deaths for every 1,000 births, which is 21% lower than in 2013.
https://timms.le.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk-perinatal-mortality/surveillance/