This is the latest edition of our featured chart, where we take a closer look at some of the insights on our data hub. The National Maternity & Perinatal Audit (NMPA) audits NHS maternity services across Great Britain. The data it produces is used to evaluate care processes and outcomes, to identify good practice and areas for improvement.

The 2026 State of the Nation report, using 2024 data, shows that a greater proportion of women and birthing people living in the most deprived areas attended their booking appointment after 10 weeks’ gestation compared to those living in the least deprived areas.

Attending an antenatal booking appointment by 10 weeks’ gestation[1] supports the early identification of potential risk factors and facilitates appropriate monitoring, helping to improve outcomes for both parent and baby.

Late initiation of antenatal care may be due to the barriers that that women and birthing people in more deprived areas face when accessing maternity services, including low levels of health literacy, limited digital access, language and communication barriers, the cost and time of travel and fear of judgement by health care professionals.

As well as leading to delayed engagement with antenatal care, these barriers may also drive worse outcomes for babies born to women and birthing people from more deprived areas. The stillbirth rate for those in the most deprived areas is 62.5% higher than the least deprived (4.2 per 1,000 total births compared to 2.2). There are also similar disparities in the neonatal mortality rate which is 54.5% higher among those living in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived (1.2 per 1,000 live births compared to 2.1).

Despite clear evidence of inequalities, deprivation has received limited policy attention. A lack of a consistent definition and approach to measuring deprivation makes it difficult to collect individual data and target action effectively. More needs to be done to make eliminating inequalities by deprivation a political priority.

[1] The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend the first antenatal appointment takes place by week ten of the pregnancy, although initial contact and referral may have been earlier.

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Interactive featured chart on our  data hub