• Contact Us
• Sitemap
• UCD Home

National Maternity Experience Survey, 2020 

Study number (SN): 0087-01

CITATION 

ABOUT THE STUDY 

The National Maternity Experience Survey 2020 invited women to share their experiences of Ireland’s maternity services. The survey is part of the National Care Experience Programme — a joint initiative by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health. The survey reflected a commitment made in The National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026 to evaluate maternity care services from the perspectives of the women who use them.

6,357 women who gave birth in October and November 2019 were invited to participate, with 3,204 responding. The survey questionnaire contained 68 questions which capture the whole maternity pathway from antenatal care, through labour and birth, to postnatal care in the community.

The aim of the survey was to learn from the experiences of women to improve the safety and quality of the care that they and their babies received. HIQA, the HSE and the Department of Health committed to acting on the findings of the National Maternity Experience Survey to improve the quality of maternity care services in Ireland.

MAIN TOPICS 

• Maternity care
• Health

COVERAGE, UNIVERSE, METHODOLOGY 

Population 

Women who gave birth in one of Ireland’s 19 maternity hospitals or units in October and November 2019*

*In order to ensure a sufficient sample size, women who gave birth in October and November in smaller maternity units were invited to take part. In larger maternity units women who gave birth in October only were invited to take part.

Observation units 

• Individuals
• Institutions

Temporal coverage 

From 10/2019 to 11/2029

Time dimension  

Cross-sectional study

Geographical coverage 

Country: Republic of Ireland

Methods of data collection 

• PAPI (Paper and Pencil Interviewing): Self-completion (distributed by post, email or other)

Sampling procedures 

Women aged 16 or over who had a live birth in October or November 2019 and had a postal address in the Republic of Ireland were invited to participate in the National Maternity Experience Survey. Eligible participants were informed of the survey upon discharge from hospital. All eligible new mothers were contacted by post in February and March 2020. They were provided with information on the survey and a link to the online questionnaire. In March and April, two reminder letters were sent to the women who were invited to participate but had not yet returned a survey. The second reminder contained a paper copy of the questionnaire and a return envelope.  Women could opt out at any point from discharge through to survey close.

Response rate 

6,357 women who gave birth in October and November 2019 were invited to participate, with 3,204 responding (50%).

DATA AND DOCUMENTATION: FILES’ DESCRIPTION  

Data (available through ISSDA application process) 

Documentation (available for download) 

LINKS 

https://yourexperience.ie/maternity/about-the-survey/

ACCESS INFORMATION 

Accessing the data 

To access the data, please complete a ISSDA Data Request Form for Research Purposes - Pseudonymised Datasets, sign it, and send it to ISSDA by email.

For teaching purposes, please complete the ISSDA Data Request Form for Teaching Purposes - Pseudonymised Datasets, and follow the procedures, as above. Teaching requests are approved on a once-off module/workshop basis. Subsequent occurrences of the module/workshop require a new teaching request form.

Data will be disseminated on receipt of a fully completed, signed form. Incomplete or unsigned forms will be returned to the data requester for completion.

Copyright 

Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health

Acknowledgements 

Any work based in whole or part on resources provided by the ISSDA, should  acknowledge: “National Maternity Experience Survey, 2020" and also ISSDA, in the following way: “Accessed via the Irish Social Science Data Archive - www.ucd.ie/issda”.

Citation requirement 

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical citation 

National Care Experience Programme (2025). National Maternity Experience Survey, 2020 [dataset]. Version 1. Irish Social Science Data Archive. SN: 0087-01. https://www.ucd.ie/issda/data/nationalmaternityexperiencesurvey/nationalmaternityexperiencesurvey2020/

Notification 

The user shall notify the Irish Social Science Data Archive of all publications where she or he has used the data.