Antenatal booking in Scotland
Calendar year ending 31 December 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on a range of information about women booking for antenatal care in Scotland, such as total numbers, smoking status, and how early or late in their pregnancy they access this care. Some women may experience more than one pregnancy in a 12-month period. The data presented in this report relates to the number of pregnancies booked for maternity care rather than the number of women attending appointments.

Main points

In 2024:

• There were 49,952 pregnancies booked for maternity care, a slight decrease on the 50,466 pregnancies booked in 2023.
• Almost two thirds of these pregnancies were in four NHS Boards, and these were in order of frequency NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Grampian.

his bar chart shows the number of pregnancies booked in each NHS Board area of residence in 2024. It is ordered by number of bookings, from lowest (NHS Orkney) to highest (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde).

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Number of pregnancies booked, by NHS Board of residence

• Over the last five years the number of pregnancies booked has generally fallen except in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde where the number has increased each year.
• The percentage of pregnancies booked by 12 weeks varied across mainland NHS Boards from 95.6% in NHS Borders and NHS Highland to 89.0% in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
• 88.5% of pregnant women from the most deprived areas accessed antenatal care by 12 weeks, compared to 95.2% of women from the least deprived areas.
• Pregnant women continue to be more likely to live in deprived areas than the general population.
• There were 3,929 pregnancies booked where women reported smoking tobacco (8.2%) and a further 6,108 where women reported being a former tobacco smoker (12.8%).
• The percentage of pregnancies where women reported smoking tobacco was roughly ten times higher for those living in the most compared to least deprived areas.

Background

The data presented are obtained from the Antenatal Booking Collection (ABC) dataset. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, PHS worked with NHS Boards to set up this national data return providing information on women booking for antenatal care. ABC is based on data recorded by midwives in local clinical information systems when a woman ‘books’ for maternity care.

The booking appointment is the first planned and structured contact a midwife has with a pregnant woman, to assess her history and needs so that local maternity services can provide further care such as an early pregnancy scan and antenatal screening tests. The booking appointment can also give women further information about how they can keep themselves and their baby healthy during pregnancy, and to help them plan labour and birth.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be March 2026.