Medical Records: Babies
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that NHS services (a) engage with new fathers and (b) record their details alongside mothers in their baby's health records.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The National Health Service’s three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services recognises that listening and responding to all women and families, including fathers, is an essential part of safe and high-quality care.
Maternity and neonatal voices partnerships are forums that are in place to ensure that service user voices, including fathers, are at the heart of decision-making in maternity and neonatal services. They bring together the staff who commission and provide maternity services with those who use those services. All members of the partnership take responsibility for the development and delivery of agreed workplans.
Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services also offer mental health assessments and signposting to support as required for fathers/partners of women accessing services. Many NHS trusts have also implemented Family Integrated Care, a model of neonatal care which encourages the involvement of parents, including fathers, which in turn can benefit infant health outcomes.
Once a child is registered with the General Registry Office of Births and Deaths (GRO), the NHS receives information showing the parents listed on the birth certificate. Due to a period where not all GRO relationships were added to the NHS record, the NHS is currently working to ensure this happens going forward, and this work should be complete by Autumn 2025.
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