The Danish National Quality Database for Births

AIM OF THE DATABASE: The aim of the Danish National Quality Database for Births (DNQDB) is to measure the quality of the care provided during birth through specific indicators.

STUDY POPULATION: The database includes all hospital births in Denmark.

MAIN VARIABLES: Anesthesia/pain relief, continuous support for women in the delivery room, lacerations (third and fourth degree), cesarean section, postpartum hemorrhage, establishment of skin-to-skin contact between the mother and the newborn infant, severe fetal hypoxia (proportion of live-born children with neonatal hypoxia), delivery of a healthy child after an uncomplicated birth, and anesthesia in case of cesarean section.

DESCRIPTIVE DATA: Data have been collected since 2010. As of August 2015, data on women and children representing 269,597 births and 274,153 children have been collected. All data for the DNQDB is collected from the Danish Medical Birth Registry. Registration to the Danish Medical Birth Registry is mandatory for all maternity units in Denmark. During the 5 years, performance has improved in the areas covered by the process indicators and for some of the outcome indicators.

CONCLUSION: Measuring quality of care during childbirth has inspired and enabled staff to attend to the quality of the care they provide and has led to improvements in most of the areas covered.