Government of Jersey

Still births and miscarriages (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 01 September 2020.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

I note on the 2019 Births and Breastfeeding report that for 2008-2019 the combined number of stillbirths from 20 weeks, neonatal and infant deaths is under 50.

So it would appear that losses between 12 – 20 weeks gestation are not recorded in the report, would you be able to provide the figures over the last 10 years? It would be particularly useful to have them separated between Rayner and Maternity. I understand you may not be able to give me details broken down by each year, but to separate out older and newer information would also be helpful.

Also, I would like to know the number of women experiencing early miscarriage <12 weeks each year.

Response

The table below shows the number of miscarriages and stillbirths recorded on TrakCare (the Hospital Patient Administration System) for each year 2012 to 2019. It is not possible to look at data further back as 2012 is the first full year of data in this system.

Year	Miscarriages – unknown gestation	Miscarriages at 0-12 weeks	Miscarriages at 13-20 weeks	Miscarriages or still births at > 20 weeks	Total
2012	6	<5	<5	8	16
2013	<5	<5	<5	8	14
2014	<5	<5	<5	<5	11
2015	<5	<5	<5	<5	5
2016	<5	<5	<5	<5	<5
2017	<5	<5	<5	<5	<5
2018	<5	<5	<5	<5	6
2019	<5	<5	<5	<5	13

In the time period, 70% of the miscarriages and stillbirths happened on Maternity, 18% on Rayner and 11% in other locations.

The WHO definition is - babies born after 24 or more weeks completed gestation that did not, at any time, breathe or show signs of life.

Due to the very low numbers involved, any further breakdown will not be provided as it could lead to the identification of individuals. This information is therefore exempt under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2)     Information is absolutely exempt information if –
(a)     it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and
(b)     its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.