Skip to main content
A contact recorded against the wrong woman, a delivery filed against the wrong pregnancy, or a birth recorded twice, is corrected by marking it entered in error. Nothing is deleted: the record stays on file with your reason and your name on it, and stops counting. Every record in maternity is retracted the same way, and the permission is always the one that records that kind of record — whoever may say a visit happened may say it did not.

​
Retract an antenatal contact

Each row in Contacts on her antenatal card ends with Mark in error.
1

Select Mark in error on the contact's row

The dialog names the visit it is about to retract — Mark contact 3 as entered in error? — so a mis-clicked row is visible before anything is written.
2

Read what it says the retraction means

“Contact 3 on 4 August 2026 says this visit was never recorded here. It comes off her antenatal series and out of the coverage figures, and the vitals and findings taken at it stop appearing on her consultation chart. The record stays on file with your reason and your name. There is no way to undo it — the correction is a new contact.”
3

Write the reason

Why is this wrong? is required — “Whoever reads this record next sees this sentence and nothing else about why.” Write the correction, not a note to yourself: “Recorded against the wrong woman; the visit belongs to the record on the next row of the clinic list.”
4

Select Mark in error

It confirms Contact marked as entered in error — “It is off her antenatal series and out of the coverage figures. The record and your reason stay on file.”
The vitals go with it, and that is the point. An antenatal contact is recorded as a triage encounter, so the blood pressure, pulse, weight, fundal height, fetal heart rate and bedside urine tests taken at that visit are on the woman’s consultation chart as well as her antenatal card. Retracting the contact takes them off the chart too. Retracting the row on its own would leave a fetal heart rate that belongs to somebody else sitting in her doctor’s flowsheet.
The row leaves the card. A retracted contact is not shown struck through in the series — it is simply no longer one of her contacts (it stays listed under Contact records with an Entered in error badge, so the withdrawal is visible), the same way a retracted postnatal contact leaves its slot free rather than reading as done. Her contact count drops by one, which can move her back to Due or Overdue on Today’s Clinic. The record itself, and who retracted it, are in your audit log.
Later contacts keep their numbers. Retracting Contact 3 does not renumber Contact 4. Each number was worked out at the moment that visit was written up and is a fact about it, not a live position in a list.

​
Retract a delivery or a birth record

​
Retract from the bottom up

A record with live records underneath it is refused, never cascaded — a cascade would stamp one person’s reason across records they never looked at, and retract a real baby’s birth as a side effect of correcting a labour. So work upwards:
1

Retract the postnatal contacts

On Postnatal, select the recorded cell and choose Mark as entered in error, with a reason for each.Skip this and the birth record refuses: “This baby still has a postnatal contact recorded against them. Retract that contact first, with its own reason.”
2

Retract each birth record

On the labour record, select Open on the baby’s row, then Mark as entered in error.Skip this and the delivery refuses, naming the count: “This labour still has 2 birth records against it. Retract each one first, with its own reason — a birth left pointing at a retracted labour is a baby the register can no longer explain.”
3

Retract the delivery record

Select Open record, then Mark as entered in error at the bottom of the sheet.

​
What the dialog asks

Both dialogs say the same three things: what this claims, what it does not touch, and why.
1

Read what it says the retraction means

Mark this delivery record as entered in error? — “this says the labour was never recorded here. There is no way to undo it.”On a baby it reads Mark birth 1 as entered in error? — “this says the birth was never recorded here.”
2

Write the reason

Why is this being marked as entered in error? is required, and it is part of the record: “Whoever reads this record next sees this sentence and nothing else about why.” Write the correction, not a note to yourself — “Recorded against the wrong woman; duplicate of the record on the correct pregnancy.”
3

Select Mark as entered in error

A delivery confirms Delivery record marked as entered in error, and the sheet closes. A birth confirms Birth record marked as entered in error — “It stays on file with your reason. The baby’s own patient record is untouched.”
There is no un-retract. A retracted record cannot be edited and cannot be brought back. The correction is a new record — Triage and Start delivery record appear again on the pregnancy, and a new birth is recorded from Record a birth.
A retracted birth still holds its number on the form. After retracting Birth 2, the sheet still treats 2 as taken: entering it shows “Birth 2 is already recorded in this labour” and Record birth stays unavailable. Record the corrected baby at the next position the form offers, and say which baby she is in Notes.

​
A registered baby keeps their patient record

This is the fear, and the answer is plain: retracting a birth record never touches the child. Their patient record, their chart and the mother’s guardian link are all left exactly as they are. The dialog says 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.
The corrected birth record can be linked back to the same child, so nobody has to register the baby a second time — which would give one child two patient records with their care split across both.

​
What changes, and what does not

The Antenatal Register does not move. The confirmation mentions “the register”; what actually changes are the coverage figures. The Antenatal Register lists pregnancy records, and retracting a delivery does not touch hers — a pregnancy closed with the outcome Live birth keeps that row and that outcome. Closing a pregnancy record cannot be undone, so if the outcome itself is wrong, the register will keep saying so.

​
What a retracted delivery looks like afterwards

The labour record does not pretend the delivery never happened. The Delivery record card is badged Retracted and says so:
This labour was recorded and then marked as entered in error. The record stays on file, read-only, and nothing is claimed about this labour now — starting a new record is what replaces it.
Under it, Reason given: and the reason you typed. View retracted record opens it read-only; Start delivery record sits beside it for the corrected one. The card is also where the register question is answered honestly: “It is out of the delivery figures. It did not come off the Antenatal Register — the register lists pregnancies, and this pregnancy keeps its row and its outcome.” The Babies card stays, and Record a birth is unavailable there — “This labour is retracted, so no birth can be recorded against it. Start the corrected delivery record first, then record the babies against that.” Where a pregnancy has been through this more than once, the card lists the earlier ones: An earlier record for this pregnancy was retracted, each with when it was recorded and the reason given.

​
Retracting a signed record

A signed delivery record can be retracted, and that is deliberate: refusing it would leave a signed claim that a woman gave birth when she did not, standing on her chart and in the coverage figures for ever, with no way out. It takes more authority than an unsigned one. The dialog adds: “This record is signed. Retracting it withdraws that attestation; the signature stays visible on the retracted record.” If you may record a delivery but not sign one, the button is unavailable and the page says why: Retracting a signed record needs the same authority as signing it. A birth record needs no extra permission even when the delivery is signed — the signature is on the labour, and nothing signs a birth record.

​
Who can do this

Retraction has no permission of its own on purpose. Whoever may assert that a birth or a visit happened may assert that it did not — splitting them would leave a delivery recorded against the wrong woman standing, because the only midwife on shift could not retract it. Signing is the one exception, because unmaking an attestation is an act of the same authority as making one.

​
Check it worked

  • After an antenatal contact is retracted, its row has gone from Contacts on her antenatal card, and the contact count in the pregnancy summary is one lower. The vitals and findings taken at that visit have gone from her consultation chart.
  • ANC1, ANC4+ and ANC8+ on Antenatal Coverage are recalculated from her new contact count for her booking month.
  • After a delivery is retracted, the Delivery record card on the labour record is badged Retracted, carries your reason, and offers View retracted record.
  • After a birth is retracted, open it again: it is read-only, under This birth record is marked as entered in error. — “It stays on file as a correction and cannot be edited.”
  • Her row has gone from the in-labour side of Labour Ward, and from Postnatal.
  • Deliveries on Antenatal Coverage is one lower for her booking month.
  • The retraction, with who did it and when, is in your audit log.

​
Common issues

“Mark each one as entered in error first, with its own reason — a dose left pointing at a retracted contact is a dose the register can no longer explain.” The doses are in Programme doses on the same antenatal card; select Mark in error on each. The message names how many are left.
The reason is part of the record, not a confirmation click, and a box of spaces will not do. Write what was wrong with the visit.
Somebody retracted it while your card was open. Reload — a contact is never retracted twice, and a second reason never overwrites the first.
“Reload and check what it says now.” Somebody recorded a dose at that visit in the seconds since you opened the dialog, so nothing was written. Retract the dose first, then the contact.
One message covers both, on purpose. Check you are in the right workspace, that the card is not stale, and that Record an antenatal contact is switched on for you — see Permissions.
“Retract that birth first, with its own reason — a birth left pointing at a retracted labour is a baby the register can no longer explain.” Open each baby’s record from Babies and retract it, then come back to the delivery. The message names how many are left.
“Retract that contact first, with its own reason.” The contacts are on Postnatal — select the recorded cell and choose Mark as entered in error.
The reason is part of the record, not a confirmation click. Write what was wrong with it.
Somebody retracted it while your sheet was open. Reload — a retracted record is never retracted twice.
“Open it again and check what it says now.” Somebody completed or signed it in the seconds since you opened the dialog, so nothing was written. Read what it says before deciding again.
You have Record a delivery but not Sign a delivery record. Ask somebody with signing authority to retract it — see Permissions.
One message covers both, on purpose. Check you are in the right workspace and that the record still exists.

​
FAQ

No. Nothing in maternity deletes. A record that should never have existed is marked entered in error, which keeps it on file with its reason — that is how somebody reading the record later can tell a mistake from a clinical event.
No. An antenatal contact is recorded as a triage encounter, so its readings appear on the woman’s consultation chart as well as her antenatal card. Retracting the contact removes that encounter from the chart. This matters most in the case retraction exists for: a visit recorded against the wrong woman would otherwise leave her carrying somebody else’s blood pressure and fetal heart rate.
It changes her contact count, and the schedule is worked out from that count against her expected delivery date every time the page is drawn. So she may move back to Due or Overdue on Today’s Clinic. Nothing is recalculated and stored — see Today’s Clinic.
Yes. Correcting the record of what happened is not the same as reopening the pregnancy, and closing does not seal the contacts against correction. Retracting a contact never changes the pregnancy’s status or outcome.
Yes, both. A retracted birth stays under Babies, marked Retracted and left out of the count; open it and the banner repeats it. A retracted delivery keeps its card, badged Retracted, with View retracted record to open it read-only. Who retracted either, and when, is in your audit log.
Yes, both. A wrong record of any kind still holds the one delivery slot on that pregnancy, so leaving it standing would block the correct delivery from ever being recorded against her. A record reading Assessed on admission retracts exactly like a draft.
They leave her clinical chart with the record. The examination taken when she was assessed in labour — the cervical dilatation, the fetal heart rate, her blood pressure — is recorded as an encounter on her chart, and retracting the delivery record takes it off there too. That matters most when the record was opened against the wrong woman: the readings do not stay behind on a chart they never belonged to.The encounter itself is not deleted, and it stays in her clinic’s own records and in the audit log. What stops is it being shown as part of her clinical picture.
No. The child’s patient record, chart and guardian link are untouched, and the corrected birth record can be linked to the same child. Never register the baby again to work around it.
No — but it is what makes re-opening possible. Retracting a delivery never changes the pregnancy’s outcome on its own. If the pregnancy was closed as delivered, re-open it afterwards from her antenatal card using Re-open this record, which clears the outcome. The order matters: re-opening is refused while a delivery still stands against the pregnancy. See Open, re-date and close a pregnancy record.
Nothing. Every partograph observation stays exactly where it was — see The labour chart.