Every maternity home keeps a delivery register. Most keep it in a hardbound book whose columns were ruled by whoever started it, and it works until the day someone needs a number from it: the birth report due in 21 days, the month's HMIS figures, an insurer asking what time the baby was born, a parent asking for a correction to a birth certificate eleven years later.
This page gives you a delivery register built on the Government of India's own Labour Room Register, adapted for a private hospital, as an Excel workbook, an editable Word file and a print-ready landscape PDF. No sign-up. It adds what the government layout leaves out for a private facility: when each birth was reported to the Registrar, and under what number.
In short
- No law prescribes a delivery-register layout for private hospitals. The Government of India's recommended Labour Room Register (NHM, Dakshata) is the closest thing to a national standard, and this template follows it.
- One row per baby, not per mother. Twins get two rows, because the birth report is filed separately for each child.
- The hospital reports the birth, not the family: the medical officer in charge, within 21 days. Since 1 October 2023 a failure to report can cost up to ₹1,000 per birth.
- Every monthly figure (normal, assisted and caesarean deliveries, live births, still births, referrals) should be a count of register rows, so the register, the IPD register and the HMIS report never disagree.
- Keep it longer than the five-year minimum. A child's name can be added to the birth registration up to 15 years later, and the record is checked against yours.
Download the delivery register
One pack, four parts: the delivery register (in two halves that share a delivery number, so a row fits on a landscape page), a monthly summary, a birth-reporting log, and an instructions pagewith the government’s list of registers a labour room should keep.
- Excel workbook (.xlsx), one sheet per part, header rows frozen; the easiest way to total the month.
- Word (.docx), landscape A4, editable; add your letterhead and registration number.
- PDF, print-ready landscape A4 for a labour room that writes by hand.
Free to use and adapt. It is a working register, not a statutory form: births are still reported on the form your Registrar prescribes.
What columns does a delivery register need?
The Government of India publishes a recommended Labour Room Register as part of NHM’s Dakshata programme. It has thirteen column groups, and it is the best starting point for any facility, public or private:
| Column group | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Serial numbers | Year serial and month serial. |
| Client details | Registration number, name and age, husband’s or guardian’s name, address, mobile. |
| Obstetric history | LMP and EDD, gravida, parity, abortions, living children, previous LSCS, past complications. |
| Admission | Date and time, direct or referred, gestational age, BP, temperature, FHR, Hb, blood group, infection screening, high-risk factors. |
| Interventions | Partograph, induction, augmentation, magnesium sulphate, episiotomy, uterotonic for AMTSL, delayed cord clamping, antibiotics, transfusion. |
| Delivery | Date and time, type (normal, assisted, caesarean and its indication), conducted by, mother alive, single or multiple, term or preterm, live birth or still birth. |
| Baby | Identification number, sex, weight, resuscitation, breastfed within one hour, vitamin K1, birth-dose vaccines. |
| Complications | For the mother (APH, PPH, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, sepsis, obstructed or prolonged labour) and the baby (sepsis, asphyxia, low birth weight, prematurity). |
| Referral | Reason and destination, separately for mother and baby. |
| Discharge | Date and time; mother’s BP, temperature, bleeding; baby’s temperature, feeding, breathing. |
| Postpartum family planning | Counselling, method chosen, date adopted. |
| Follow-up notes | Anything else that matters. |
| Signature | Labour room in-charge. |
The government layout is written for public facilities, so it carries columns a private hospital rarely needs as mandatory (MCTS number, BPL status, bank details, the ASHA’s name). Our template folds those into the client details and adds what a private facility does need: IPD or UHID number, the conducting and assisting doctor, APGAR scores, how labour was monitored, and the birth-reporting columns described below.
Which registers does a labour room keep?
The government’s LaQshya labour room checklist (MoHFW, 2017) lists them under “registers and records are maintained as per guidelines”:
- Labour room register (the delivery register)
- OT register
- MTP register
- Maternal death register and records
- Lab register
- Referral in and out register
- PPIUCD register
- Newborn care corner (NBCC) register
- Nursing handover register
The same checklist asks that every register be numbered and labelled legibly. LaQshya is written for government hospitals, and Gujarat had 70 LaQshya-certified labour rooms by June 2025, but the list is a sound benchmark for a private maternity home too. FOGSI’s Manyata programme assesses private maternity units on similar clinical standards. The instructions page of our pack turns the list into a tick-sheet.
What should the delivery note and the baby note say?
The register is a one-line summary. The full note lives in the case sheet, and LaQshya says what makes it adequate:
- Delivery note: outcome of delivery, date and time, gestational age, who conducted it, type of delivery, any complication, the indication for any intervention, date and time of transfer, and cause of death if any.
- Baby note: whether the baby cried, essential newborn care, any resuscitation, sex, weight, time breastfeeding started, birth doses, and any congenital anomaly.
Write the register line from the note, not from memory at the end of the shift. When the two disagree on a time or a weight, everything copied from them (the birth report, the discharge summary, the insurance claim) disagrees too.
Partograph or WHO Labour Care Guide: what should the register record?
The Government of India’s recommended labour room case sheets still use the partograph, started when the cervix reaches 4 cm. WHO introduced the Labour Care Guide in 2020, and FIGO now describes it as the replacement for the partograph; it has been piloted in Indian hospitals. We could not find a Ministry of Health notification adopting it nationally.
For the register this matters less than it seems. The chart itself belongs in the case sheet; the register records that labour was monitored, and on what. Our template has one column for it: partograph, Labour Care Guide, or not applicable (for example an elective LSCS).
How does the delivery register feed the birth report?
For a birth in a hospital, maternity home or nursing home, the duty to report sits with the institution, not the family: section 8(1)(b) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 names the medical officer in charge, or a person they authorise. The report goes to the Registrar of the area within 21 days, free of fee in that period, as the Registrar General’s CRS FAQ explains.
The 2023 amendment, in force from 1 October 2023, changed several things a maternity home should know:
- The information must be signed, and include the Aadhaar numbers of the parents and the informant, if available.
- Every medical institution must give the Registrar a free certificate of the cause of death for any death in it, with a copy to the nearest relative.
- The Registrar issues the birth certificate within seven days of registration.
- An institution that fails to report, or reports falsely, can be fined up to ₹1,000 for each birth or death.
Most of the statistical part of the birth report (the mother’s age, children born alive, type of attention at delivery, method of delivery, birth weight and weeks of pregnancy) is exactly what the register already holds. A register that carries those columns turns the report into a copy job. Each child gets its own report, which is why twins need their own rows.
We do not supply the birth report form itself; use the one your Registrar or the CRS portal prescribes. Our birth-reporting log tracks, for each event, when it was reported, how, the registration number, and when the certificate reached the family. In Gujarat, the 2025 amendment to the state rules reportedly requires names in full and dates as dd-mm-yyyy, so the register asks for both. If a birth happens through surrogacy, the person in charge of the surrogacy clinic reports it (see our Surrogacy Act guide).
How long must you keep the delivery register?
In Gujarat, Rule 15(3) of the Clinical Establishments Rules requires indoor records to be kept for at least five years, and medico-legal records until the case is finally disposed of (see our Gujarat Clinical Establishments Act guide). Nationally, the IMC (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 require indoor records for three years.
Our recommendation, not a legal rule: keep the delivery register permanently. A child’s name can be added to the birth registration up to 15 years after registration, and parents come back for corrections long after the five years are up. The register is the record that settles them.
What mistakes show up when an inspector or insurer reads it?
- Twins on one line. Each baby needs its own row and identification number.
- Still births not classified. Fresh, macerated and newborn deaths are counted separately in the government’s monthly report.
- Times missing or rounded. The delivery time feeds the birth report, the discharge summary and the claim.
- Blank cells. A blank reads as “not done”. Write NA where something does not apply.
- Registers not numbered or labelled. LaQshya checks for it.
- LSCS in one register but not the other. Every caesarean belongs in the delivery register and the operation register, and every delivery in the indoor patients register.
- Abortions mixed in. MTPs and early losses go in the MTP admission register.
- No record of birth reporting. Without a reported-on date, the 21-day window is missed without anyone noticing.
- Names with initials, dates in mixed formats. Reports can be sent back.
- Full Aadhaar numbers in an open register. Record only whether they were given to the Registrar; keep the register in a secure place.
The monthly summary in our pack is the check: every figure should be a count of register rows, and should match the IPD register, the operation register and the HMIS report. The government’s monthly reporting format follows the same logic.
Should the delivery register be on paper or in software?
Paper is perfectly lawful. The cost is not the register; it is writing the same delivery five times: in the register, the indoor register, the operation register for an LSCS, the discharge summaries and the birth report. Each copy is a chance for a time or a weight to drift.
In MedStream a delivery is an admission. The baby’s details (sex, term or pre-term, weight, date and time of birth, paediatrician, any NICU referral) are entered once on that admission, the operation register fills itself for an LSCS, and the HMIS government register is kept from the same records, with documents printed in English or Gujarati. If you are moving off paper, our guide to moving from paper registers to software covers the switch, and the maternity home page shows the workflow.
From the people who built it
Write the delivery once. Let the registers follow.
MedStream records the delivery on the admission, with the baby's sex, term, weight and time of birth, and keeps the operation register and the HMIS government register from the same record. Bring a test delivery to a thirty-minute demo and see where each number goes.
Questions on this topic
What is the format of a delivery register in a labour room?
- The Government of India's recommended Labour Room Register (NHM, Dakshata) has thirteen column groups: serial numbers, client details, obstetric history, admission details, interventions, details of delivery, information about the baby, complications, referral, condition of mother and baby at discharge, postpartum family planning, follow-up notes, and the labour room in-charge's signature. The free template on this page follows it, adapted for a private hospital.
Who reports a birth that happens in a private hospital or nursing home?
- The medical officer in charge of the hospital, maternity home or nursing home, or a person they authorise, under section 8(1)(b) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. The family does not report an institutional birth. The report goes to the Registrar of the area within 21 days, free of fee in that period.
What changed in birth registration from 1 October 2023?
- The amended Act asks for the Aadhaar numbers of the parents and the informant where available, requires the information to be signed, makes every medical institution give a free cause-of-death certificate to the Registrar with a copy to the nearest relative, has the Registrar issue the certificate within seven days, and allows a fine of up to ₹1,000 per birth or death on an institution that fails to report.
Which registers should a labour room maintain?
- The government's LaQshya checklist lists the labour room register, OT register, MTP register, maternal death register, lab register, referral in and out register, PPIUCD register, newborn care corner register and nursing handover register, and asks that every register be numbered and labelled. LaQshya is written for government facilities, but the list is a sound benchmark for a private maternity home.
Is the partograph still used in India, or the WHO Labour Care Guide?
- The Government of India's recommended labour room case sheets still use the partograph, started when the cervix reaches 4 cm. WHO introduced the Labour Care Guide in 2020 as its replacement and it has been piloted in Indian hospitals, but we could not find a Ministry of Health notification adopting it nationally. Either way, the register should record which one was used.
How long should a hospital keep its delivery register?
- In Gujarat, at least five years for indoor records under Rule 15(3) of the Clinical Establishments Rules, and until final disposal for anything medico-legal; nationally, the 2002 IMC regulations require three years. Because a child's name can be added to the birth registration up to 15 years later, we recommend keeping the delivery register permanently.