An evaluation of the notification of birth form

Data on 108 Notification of Birth Forms, from a total of 6 hospitals, have been compared with hospital case notes, for both accuracy and completeness. Items related to socio-demographic features of mothers were reliable. However, certain items related to past obstetric history, such as date of last birth and number of previous live births, were less than 90% reliable. Data on index pregnancy were poorest, with three items, first visit to doctor during pregnancy, first visit to hospital during pregnancy and rubella immune status all less than 75% reliable. Data from one hospital were of poorer quality than others, principally because the information on the form is not obtained directly from the mother. Data on forms related to travellers (N = 29) were also of poorer quality.