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A Babies section sits under the labour chart on the labour record, with a count and one row per baby. One labour has one delivery record, and each baby is a birth of its own — so twins are two birth records against the same labour.

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Record a birth

Select Record a birth. The sheet is headed Record a birth and names the mother. Every baby already recorded in this labour is listed at the top, so nobody records the second twin believing they are correcting the first.
1

Set the birth order

Birth order comes first and is never hidden behind a default: “1 for a single baby. Twins are birth 1 and birth 2 of the same labour.”
2

Set the time of birth and the outcome

Time of birth is “This baby’s own moment — twins are minutes apart.”Outcome offers Live birth, Fresh stillbirth, Macerated stillbirth and Early neonatal death. It has no default — it is the one thing the record cannot leave out, and a default would make the claim on your behalf. Sex offers Male, Female, Ambiguous genitalia and Indeterminate.
3

Add the measurements and Apgar

Birth weight in grams, Length and Head circumference in cm; 1 minute, 5 minutes and 10 minutes Apgar out of 10. All optional, and a box left blank stays blank — never a zero. A real score of 0 is stored as 0.
4

Record the immediate care

Resuscitation is chosen from a list rather than typed, “so the register can count them” — and is recorded on any outcome, because “resuscitation attempted and stopped is still what happened”.Skin to skin is asked on every outcome: “Holding a stillborn baby is bereavement care, and it is care that was given.”Breastfeeding started within the hour is the one question that needs a baby born alive.
5

Add any findings

Congenital anomalies — “Recorded as found — nothing here is acted on automatically” — and Notes.
6

Select Record birth

It confirms Birth recorded and names the position — “Birth 1 of this labour.” For a live birth it adds that registering the baby as a patient is a separate step.
Not recorded is the default on every optional answer, including Sex, Skin to skin and each Apgar. Those two questions have three answers, not two, so “no” and “nobody wrote it down” stay apart — which on skin-to-skin is the whole point of the field.

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Amend a birth record

Select Open on the baby’s row. The sheet is headed Birth 1, Birth 2 and so on, and the button reads Save changes.
Birth order is locked when you amend, and the field says so: “It identifies this baby and can’t be changed here.” Retyping 2 as 3 would not move this record — it would start a third baby and leave the second one stranded. To fix a mis-numbered baby, open the record that actually holds that position.
If you try to record a new birth at a position this labour already holds, the sheet refuses before saving and names the sibling: “Birth 2 is already recorded in this labour. Open that record to amend it, or give this baby the next position — saving here would overwrite the other baby.”

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Register a live-born baby as a patient

A birth record lives on the mother’s record. Registering creates the baby’s own chart and puts the mother on it as guardian. You do not have to be inside the birth record to do this. Postnatal carries a Waiting to be registered card listing every baby born alive here who has no chart of their own yet, with a Register button on each row and how long each has been waiting. It has no time limit — a birth from months ago stays on it until somebody registers the baby. Registering from there opens the very same sheet described below. At the bottom of a saved birth record, one of three things is shown — never a greyed-out button:
1

Select Register newborn

The sheet names the birth, the mother and the time of birth.
2

Give the baby a name

First name is pre-filled with Baby — “‘Baby’ until the parents have named them”. Last name takes the mother’s surname: it is pre-filled when you open the sheet from Waiting to be registered, and empty when you open it from the birth record here, where the surname is not to hand. Preferred name is optional: “what the family calls them.”Nothing else is asked: “The date of birth and the sex come from the birth record — where the sex is ambiguous or not yet determined, the chart’s gender is left unset rather than guessed, and the birth record keeps the obstetric answer.”
3

Select Register newborn

It confirms Newborn registered — “The baby has their own chart, with the mother on it as guardian.”
The guardian link records real answers, not defaults. The mother is put on the baby’s chart as Parent and Primary, with Can access records, Can schedule appointments, Emergency contact and Responsible for billing all set — a four-minute-old cannot settle a bill or consent to anything, so each is stated rather than left to whatever a blank field would become. Everywhere else a guardian added by hand starts on Not recorded until somebody chooses. Review it if the family’s arrangements differ, particularly Responsible for billing. See Guardians and records access.

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If the mother could not be linked

Registration can succeed while the guardian link does not. The sheet then says Registered — but the mother isn’t linked as guardian, and adds the instruction that matters:
Don’t register this baby again — that would create a second patient record for the same child. Add the mother from the baby’s profile instead.
Never register the same baby twice. A second registration is a second patient record for one child, with their care split across both. If the mother is not linked, add her as a guardian from the baby’s own profile — see Guardians on the chart.

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Birth doses

Doses on a baby’s row opens BCG, OPV-0 and the Hepatitis B birth dose — the three given in the first hours of life. All three are always listed, including any that don’t apply, so you can tell “not applicable” from “nobody has looked”. Each one says where it stands: Window passed does not mean too late to give. The hepatitis B dose is most effective within 24 hours and OPV-0 only counts as the zero-dose for two weeks; past that, the dose is still given, it just belongs on the child’s own immunisation record rather than here. BCG has no window at all. The screen says so on each dose rather than leaving you to work it out.
These are the birth doses only. Later doses of the same series — OPV-1 at six weeks and onward — are the childhood immunisation schedule, which is not part of the maternity record.

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Give one from stock

Give it now, from stock draws the dose from your inventory and records it against the birth record in one step: pick the vaccine, the location it comes from, and a lot if you don’t want the earliest expiry. The confirmation says Dose given.
The baby needs a patient record first. A dose drawn from stock has to be recorded against the person who received it, and until you register the newborn there is no record to name. Recording it against the mother would put in your stock ledger that she was given BCG. Until the baby is registered, the panel offers Record one given elsewhere only, and says why.
If the dose is drawn but the birth record can’t be updated, you’ll see Dose given, but not recorded on the birth record — the vaccine has still been given. Don’t give it again.

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Record one given elsewhere

Record one given elsewhere files a dose given at another facility, with the date. Nothing is drawn from your stock.

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If a dose is wrong

Mark as entered in error on a recorded dose takes a reason and keeps the row, and the position is freed so a corrected dose can be recorded. Nothing is deleted.

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Retract a birth record

At the bottom of a saved birth record, Mark as entered in error retracts it — for a baby recorded twice, or against the wrong labour. The dialog is headed Mark birth 1 as entered in error? and says what it claims: “this says the birth was never recorded here. There is no way to undo it.” A reason is required.
A registered baby keeps their patient record. The dialog states it outright: “This baby has their own patient record. It is NOT deleted and their chart is not changed — a child is not a data-entry error. Only this birth record is retracted, and the corrected one can be linked to the same child.” Never register the baby again to work around a retraction.
The retracted record stays on file, read-only, under This birth record is marked as entered in error. — and it stays in the Babies list, badged Retracted and left out of the count beside the heading, because the count is what the record claims now. It leaves the live-birth and stillbirth figures on Antenatal Coverage — those totals change. The other babies of the labour, the delivery record and the mother’s pregnancy record are untouched, and a postnatal contact recorded against this baby has to be retracted first. The whole sequence is on Retract a delivery or birth record. Recording the corrected baby is a new birth record, and the retracted baby’s number is free again. The sheet offers the lowest position no standing birth holds, so a retracted birth 2 is offered as birth 2 rather than pushing the corrected record to 3 and leaving the labour with a baby 1, a baby 3 and no baby 2. Entering it is allowed and explains itself: “Birth 2 was retracted, so this position is free. This is recorded as a new birth; the retracted record stays on file.” The withdrawn entry stays listed under the labour’s already-recorded births, marked retracted, this position is free — so two lines reading “Birth 2” is what a corrected record is supposed to look like.

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Who can do this

Writing up a baby’s weight and Apgar is writing up the delivery, so it rides the same permission — and so does retracting a birth, even when the delivery record is signed, because the signature is on the labour and nothing signs a birth record. Registering is gated separately because it creates a patient — a permanent identity with a chart of their own.

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Check it worked

  • The Babies count rises, and the baby appears as Baby 1 with its outcome.
  • A registered baby’s row carries a Registered badge.
  • The baby is no longer listed under Waiting to be registered on Postnatal.
  • The baby has their own patient record, with the mother listed as a guardian on it.
  • After a dose is recorded, the baby’s row shows Birth doses 1/3, and the dose reads Given under Doses.

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If something goes wrong

“Twins are birth 1 and birth 2 — amend the existing one rather than adding another.” Open the existing record, or give this baby the next position.
The number entered is not a position in this labour. Count the babies of this birth, not of her pregnancies.
Time of birth is ahead of now. Check the time as well as the date.
The answer is still set from before the outcome changed. Clear Breastfeeding started within the hour, which stays on screen for exactly this reason.
Resuscitation takes coded options only. Pick the closest ones and put the detail in Notes.
“The birth is recorded on the mother’s record.” This is the intended path, not a limitation to work around — the birth is fully recorded either way.
“‘Baby’ and the mother’s surname are enough for now.” The name can be changed on the baby’s own record once the parents have chosen one.
The labour it belongs to was retracted. Record the birth against the correct delivery.
The record was opened by an assessment on the labour ward and has not been moved on. Open the delivery record, fill in when the birth was and how it was conducted, and save it — then add the baby.This is not bookkeeping. A record still reading Assessed on admission is counted as a delivery by nothing, so a baby filed against it would be missing from the birth count and from the stillbirth rate on Coverage while sitting in plain sight on her chart.
“Retract that contact first, with its own reason.” The contacts are on Postnatal — a birth record cannot be retracted while a live contact points at it.

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FAQ

Yes. A stillbirth is a birth record like any other — it takes the same measurements, the same resuscitation and the same skin-to-skin answer. Only the patient record is not created.
A baby who was born alive and died within the first week. It is not a stillbirth, and that baby may have a patient record — very often they already did.
No. Each baby is its own birth record with its own time, weight and outcome, because twins are minutes apart and rarely alike.
No. Closing the pregnancy record is a separate act — see Open, re-date and close a pregnancy record.
No. Nothing in maternity deletes. Amend it if a detail is wrong; if the record should never have existed, mark it entered in error — it stays on file with your reason and stops counting. See Retract a delivery or birth record.
Waiting to be registered, at the top of Postnatal. It lists every baby born alive here with no chart of their own, oldest birth included — there is no cut-off — and you can register each one straight from the row. When there is nothing outstanding it says No births are waiting to be registered.A stillbirth never appears there, because there is no patient record to create.
On Postnatal, against this birth record — she appears there as soon as the delivery record carries a time of birth, whether or not she has been registered as a patient.