RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Obstetric hospitals and general-practitioner maternity units — the statistical record JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners JO J R Coll Gen Pract FD British Journal of General Practice SP 689 OP 694 VO 27 IS 184 A1 Marjorie Tew YR 1977 UL http://bjgp.org/content/27/184/689.abstract AB The share of general-practitioner units in the provision of maternity services, though minor, has increased since 1956, but their facilities have consistently been used less intensively than those of consultant obstetric hospitals. Their fetal and neonatal mortality rates, however, have consistently been much lower than in obstetric hospitals, a disparity which the higher proportion of births in hospital, recorded as being at above average risk, is not nearly enough to explain. These facts should be important considerations in any review of maternity services occasioned by changes in the birthrate.