The National Maternity Collection (MAT) provides statistical, demographic and clinical information about selected publicly funded maternity services up to nine months before and three months after a birth.

MAT contains data on primary maternity services provided under Section 88 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000. MAT also contains inpatient and day-patient health event data during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period for mother and baby, sourced from the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS).


MAT is used by the Ministry of Health, DHBs, PHOs, clinicians, researchers and members of the public.

Scope

Scope

Purpose

MAT is used for strategy and policy development, supporting clinical intervention, maternity service evaluation and quality assurance, to assist clinical governance and for research.

Content

The National Maternity Collection (MAT) provides information relating to selected publicly funded maternity and newborn services up to nine months before and three months after a birth.

MAT integrates health information from two sources. MAT contains data on primary maternity services provided under Section 88 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000. This information is sourced from lead maternity carer claims for payment. MAT also contains inpatient and day-patient health event data during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period for mother and baby, sourced from the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)

MAT does not contain details of stillborn babies, as most stillborn babies are not assigned a National Health Index (NHI) number at birth and are not reported to the NMDS. Information about stillbirths is included in the Mortality Collection.

Start date

Start date

NMDS information is complete from July 2000.

Claims information is collected from 1996 and is complete from July 2002.

Guide for use

Guide for use

Health event information loaded from NMDS includes all maternity events in public hospitals, plus publicly funded events in private hospitals and primary birthing units.

Primary maternity services data quality is variable. The clinical meaning of claims must be inferred as the records in the source system relate to payment for a service rather than to a clinical treatment or event.

An improvement in the quality of claims data is noted from July 2007.

For further details refer to the National Maternity Collection Data Dictionary.

Collection methods – guide for providers

Collection methods – guide for providers

Primary maternity services information is reported to the Ministry of Health on standard forms by lead maternity carers, GPs and specialists. This data is entered into the Ministry of Health maternity claims system.

Publicly funded hospital-event information is provided to the Ministry of Health in an agreed electronic file format for public and larger private hospitals. Paper forms and a cut-down electronic file format are forwarded by smaller private facilities and primary birthing units and are manually processed by the Ministry of Health.

Frequency of updates

Frequency of updates

MAT receives weekly extracts from the NMDS, NHI and the Ministry of Health maternity claims system.

Security of data

Security of data

MAT is only accessed by authorised staff for maintenance, data quality, audit and analytical purposes.

Privacy issues

Privacy issues

When a woman registers with a lead maternity carer she can expect that her health information will be used for the following purposes:

  • Treatment and care
  • Planning and funding of health services
  • Carrying out authorised research
  • Training of other healthcare practitioners
  • Preparing and publishing statistics. 

The Ministry of Health is required to ensure that the release of information meets the conditions of any legislation related to the privacy of health information, in particular the Official Information Act 1982, the Privacy Act 2020, the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 and the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985.

Research

Research

Your information may be used in research approved by an ethics committee or when it has been anonymised.

It the research is to be published and may directly or indirectly lead to you being identified, this can only be done if the researcher has obtained your consent and the research has received ethics approval.

If your health information is used for research or statistical purposes but is not published, or if it is published in a way that does not identify you, then the law currently does not require your consent for this. 

Where information is requested on a mother and her baby, the Adult Adoption Act 1985 provides greater restrictions around its release than is the case with standard health information privacy legislation. This is to protect the privacy of mother and child in the case of closed adoptions. These additional restrictions will inform the Ministry's decision-making process in these cases.

National reports and publications

National reports and publications

MAT is the primary source of data for the Annual Report on Maternity produced by the Ministry of Health.

In addition Ministry of Health publishes selected provisional maternity data to facilitate planning and service reviews in a timely manner.

Data provision

Data provision

Customised datasets or summary reports are available on request, either electronically or on paper.

Staff from the Ministry of Health Analytical Services team can help to define the specifications for a request and are familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the data.

As some data elements have been added or deleted, consistent time-series data may not be able to be provided.

The Ministry of Health Analytical Services team also offers a peer review service to ensure that Ministry of Health data is reported appropriately when published by other organisations.

There may be charges associated with data extracts.

Contact

For further information about this collection or to request specific datasets or reports email data-enquiries@health.govt.nz.

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