UK midwifery dissertations have more named, accessible national datasets available to them than almost any other health field — MBRRACE-UK’s perinatal and maternal mortality surveillance, NHS Maternity Statistics, the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit, the CQC Maternity Survey, and ONS birth statistics between them cover nearly every angle a taught midwifery dissertation needs. Below are 30 researchable topics, grouped by theme, each paired with the real UK dataset that answers it.
The five datasets behind every topic below
| Dataset | Publisher | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| MBRRACE-UK perinatal and maternal surveillance reports | MBRRACE-UK collaboration, hosted by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), University of Oxford, with the perinatal programme led from the University of Leicester | Annual perinatal mortality surveillance (late fetal losses, stillbirths and neonatal deaths) and the annual Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care report, which includes confidential enquiries into maternal deaths |
| NHS Maternity Statistics | NHS England Digital | Mode of delivery, induction of labour, length of stay, booking and delivery characteristics, drawn from Hospital Episode Statistics and the Maternity Services Data Set |
| National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA) | Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; commissioned by HQIP | Care processes and outcomes across NHS maternity services in England, Scotland and Wales, including birth setting and intervention rates |
| CQC Maternity Survey | Care Quality Commission | Patient-reported experience of antenatal, labour and postnatal care across NHS trusts in England, run as a regular national survey |
| ONS birth statistics | Office for National Statistics | Live births, maternal age, multiple births, and birth characteristics by region |
30 midwifery dissertation topics, each with a dataset
Perinatal mortality and safety
- How do stillbirth rates vary across UK regions, and what does this suggest about access to antenatal care? (MBRRACE-UK perinatal surveillance)
- What risk factors are most consistently identified in neonatal deaths following preterm birth? (MBRRACE-UK)
- How does extended perinatal mortality differ between singleton and multiple pregnancies? (MBRRACE-UK)
- What is the relationship between area-level deprivation and perinatal mortality? (MBRRACE-UK combined with ONS deprivation indices)
- What themes recur across confidential enquiries into maternal deaths from haemorrhage? (MBRRACE-UK Maternal Report)
Maternal morbidity and mental health
- How have perinatal mental health themes changed across successive MBRRACE-UK maternal reports? (MBRRACE-UK)
- What contributory risk factors are most frequently identified in confidential enquiries into maternal deaths? (MBRRACE-UK)
- How do maternal mortality outcomes differ by ethnicity in the most recent surveillance period? (MBRRACE-UK)
- What is the relationship between maternal age and reported morbidity during birth? (NHS Maternity Statistics)
- How do outcomes in multiple pregnancies compare with singleton pregnancies in NHS-reported data? (NHS Maternity Statistics)
Mode of birth and clinical intervention
- How have caesarean section rates changed across NHS trusts over recent reporting years? (NHS Maternity Statistics)
- What is the trend in induction of labour, and what does NMPA audit data suggest about the reasons? (NHS Maternity Statistics and NMPA)
- What factors are associated with instrumental delivery rates across different unit types? (NMPA)
- How do home birth rates vary by region, and what does this suggest about service provision? (NHS Maternity Statistics and ONS)
- What does NMPA audit data show about access to midwife-led birth settings? (NMPA)
Infant feeding and postnatal care
- How does breastfeeding initiation vary by region and what factors does the data associate with it? (NHS Maternity Statistics)
- What does the evidence suggest about breastfeeding continuation between birth and six to eight weeks? (OHID breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks statistics)
- How has average postnatal length of stay changed over time, and what does this suggest about service pressure? (NHS Maternity Statistics)
- How consistently is skin-to-skin contact after birth recorded and achieved across units? (Maternity Services Data Set outputs via NHS England Digital — check which measures are currently published)
- How consistently do women report being asked about their emotional wellbeing after birth? (CQC Maternity Survey)
Patient experience and equity
- How do women rate their experience of seeing the same midwife across their care compared with seeing different midwives? (CQC Maternity Survey)
- What does the CQC survey suggest about how much genuine choice women feel they have over place of birth? (CQC Maternity Survey)
- How satisfied are women with pain relief options offered during labour? (CQC Maternity Survey)
- How do reported experiences of maternity care differ for Black and Asian women compared with White women? (CQC Maternity Survey, read alongside MBRRACE-UK’s ethnicity findings)
- What does the CQC survey show about women’s experience of postnatal support after discharge? (CQC Maternity Survey)
Population trends and workforce
- How has average maternal age at first birth changed over the past decade? (ONS birth statistics)
- What are the current trends in teenage pregnancy rates, and how do they vary regionally? (ONS birth statistics)
- How does mother’s country of birth relate to recorded birth characteristics in ONS data? (ONS birth statistics)
- How has the multiple-birth rate changed over time, and what does this suggest about fertility treatment trends? (ONS birth statistics and NHS Maternity Statistics)
- How does the ratio of registered midwives to births vary across NHS regions? (NHS workforce statistics, read alongside NMC register data)
Choosing between the five datasets: a quick decision guide
If your question is about deaths and their causes, start with MBRRACE-UK — it is the only source above built around surveillance and confidential enquiry, so it lets you discuss not only how often something happened but what the enquiry panels concluded about why. If your question is about how often a clinical event or intervention happens (caesarean birth, induction, length of stay), NHS Maternity Statistics gives you the national counts and rates, and NMPA adds the audit layer that compares units and explains variation. If your question is about what women experienced, the CQC Maternity Survey is the only national source above built on women’s own reports. If your question is about who is giving birth (maternal age, multiple births, country of birth), ONS birth statistics are the population denominator the other sources assume. A practical test before you commit: open the most recent edition of the dataset you plan to use and find the exact table that answers your question. If you cannot find it in half an hour, narrow the question or switch source before you write your proposal, not after.
Where this fits with the wider UK health-data landscape
Midwifery sits alongside nursing as a field where UK undergraduate dissertations increasingly rely on published national data rather than primary recruitment, for the same access and ethics reasons. Our guide to NHS and public health datasets for a UK health dissertation covers the wider landscape of datasets like Hospital Episode Statistics and the GP Patient Survey that sit alongside the midwifery-specific sources above, and our broader UK data sources for a dissertation by subject pillar covers the equivalent decision across other fields entirely. If you are also considering a broader nursing topic, our list of 50 nursing dissertation topics in PICO format uses a comparable one-topic-one-question structure across adult, mental health, children’s and learning disability nursing. And if none of the 30 topics above fits, our multi-subject pillar of dissertation topic ideas by subject for UK students covers the equivalent starting point across nine other fields.
How to turn one of these into a proposal
Each topic above is a starting question, not a finished research design — before it goes in a proposal, narrow it to a specific time window (a named reporting year or a short recent period), a specific geography (England, or a named UK nation, since some datasets report differently across the four nations), and state explicitly whether you are doing secondary quantitative analysis of the published data or a documentary/policy analysis of what the reports say. Illustrative worked narrowing: topic 11 (“caesarean section rates across NHS trusts”) becomes “Has the caesarean section rate in England changed between the two most recently published NHS Maternity Statistics reporting years, and does NMPA audit data offer an explanation for any change?” — specific enough to be answerable, general enough to remain a genuine research question.
A caution on all of these datasets
Every dataset above reports NHS-recorded or NHS-surveyed data; none of them require you to recruit pregnant women, new mothers or midwives directly, which keeps a secondary-data midwifery dissertation clear of the ethics and access barriers that make primary recruitment in maternity settings slow and difficult for a taught dissertation timeline. State this explicitly as a design decision in your methodology chapter — that you chose secondary analysis of national surveillance and audit data specifically because it avoids the ethical and access complexity of recruiting a vulnerable, time-pressured population directly. This is the same reasoning that shapes how UG nursing dissertations on this site are framed: since the Health Research Authority stopped accepting standalone undergraduate applications for NHS ethics review from 1 September 2021, a design built entirely on already-published national data sidesteps that barrier rather than running into it midway through the project.
Frequently asked questions
Can I access MBRRACE-UK reports for free?
Yes, MBRRACE-UK publishes its perinatal surveillance and maternal confidential enquiry reports openly on its website, hosted by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford.
Do I need NHS research ethics approval to use these datasets?
Analysing already-published, aggregated national statistics does not normally require NHS research ethics approval in the way that recruiting patients or accessing identifiable patient records would — but always confirm the specific requirement with your own university’s ethics committee, since expectations can vary by department.
Can I combine two of these datasets in one dissertation?
Yes, and several of the topics above are stronger for it — for example, combining NHS Maternity Statistics with NMPA audit data to explain a trend, or combining CQC survey findings with MBRRACE-UK’s ethnicity findings to discuss equity. State clearly in your methodology how the two datasets relate and where their reporting periods or geographic scope differ.
Is a documentary or policy-analysis approach acceptable for a midwifery dissertation?
Yes, provided your department’s module handbook permits it — analysing what a series of published reports says, and how the analysis or recommendations have changed over time, is a legitimate and increasingly common design where direct primary data collection is not feasible.
How current is NHS Maternity Statistics data?
NHS England Digital publishes it on a regular annual cycle, with the most recent full reporting year typically becoming available some months after the year ends — check the publication’s own page for its current release schedule and latest available year before finalising your research question.
Can I use these datasets for a comparison across the four UK nations?
Partially — MBRRACE-UK and ONS report UK-wide or four-nations data, NMPA covers England, Scotland and Wales, and NHS Maternity Statistics and the CQC Maternity Survey are England-only; check each dataset’s own geographic scope before designing a four-nations comparison, since a genuinely comparable dataset may not exist for every topic above.
What if I want to focus on midwife-led units specifically rather than obstetric units?
NMPA audit data reports by birth setting, including midwife-led units, and is the most direct route to this comparison without primary data collection — check the audit’s most recent report for how it categorises unit types.
Should I present raw figures or trends over time?
A trend across at least two or three recent reporting periods usually makes a stronger dissertation than a single year’s snapshot, since it lets you discuss direction and possible explanations rather than a single static figure with no context.
Can I use NMC register data alongside these five datasets?
Yes — the Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes register statistics that can support a workforce-focused topic like the midwife-to-birth ratio question above, though check its most recent publication for exactly what breakdown by region or setting is available.
Do I need to request permission to publish figures from these reports in my dissertation?
Government and NHS statistical publications are normally published under an open licence that permits reuse with attribution, but always cite the specific report, its publisher and the exact page or table you drew a figure from, rather than a general reference to the organisation.
Writing your midwifery dissertation with Tesify
Tesify helps you narrow one of these topics into a specific, answerable research question and helps structure your analysis of NHS-published data correctly in your methodology chapter. Over 9,000 students have used Tesify across more than 15,000 dissertation chapters, and every dissertation on the platform is 100% written by you.