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Half of maternity wards are having to turn away women in labour because they are so busy, a report warns.It says the lives of mothers-to-be and their babies are being put at risk because they are forced to travel miles to alternative hospitals.
The report by the Royal College of Midwives states that many units are ‘bursting at the seams’ and like ‘pressure cookers’ unable to cope with the soaring demand.
Britain’s birth rate is at an all-time high, partly driven by the influx of migrants, many of whom are relatively young and ready to start families.
In addition, there has been a surge in the numbers of women in their 40s giving birth after having delayed motherhood to pursue their careers.
The report found more than a quarter of maternity units have had to restrict their home-birthing services during the past 12 months to free staff to work on the labour wards.
Midwives also say there has been an increase in complicated births, often because mothers are older or more obese.
All this has left maternity units struggling to cope – despite an extra 1,000 midwives being employed by the NHS in the past couple of years.
The Royal College of Midwives has calculated another 5,000 are needed to ensure mothers and babies are cared for properly.
The RCM’s survey of 91 senior midwives found that 46 per cent had been forced to close their unit to women in labour at least once in the past 12 months.
A fifth said their budget had been slashed in the past year and a third said they did not have enough money for necessary numbers of staff.
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the RCM, said: ‘Despite welcome increases in midwife numbers, this survey describes a worrying picture of our maternity services, and one that shows it is not improving. ‘The midwifery shortages and cuts to services it describes will have a detrimental impact on the care women, babies and their families receive.
‘This shows a service that sometimes severely restricts the choices available to women, is struggling to provide continuity of care and is bursting at the seams in its ability to cope.
‘The temporary closures it highlights are just the tip of the iceberg.
‘Before closures happen, services have already been stretched to their limit, and closing is the point at which safety could be compromised if that does not happen.
‘I have deep misgivings about the quality of the service midwives and maternity support workers are able to provide, working in such an unstable, pressure-cooker atmosphere.’
Care and attention: According to the RCM, pregnant women are being put at risk when they are forced to travel longer distances to be seen by a midwife
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 813,200 babies were born in 2012, the highest number for any year since 1972.
One experienced senior midwife, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: ‘All the fat is off the bone – we cannot strip any more off.
‘Having worked in the NHS for more than 30 years I have never known it to be so bad, and I fear for mothers and babies and midwives who are working tirelessly.
‘It is most difficult now we are trying to provide more for less with an increasing birth rate, but as far as trust boards are concerned this is not enough.
: The idealisms from the Department of Health and House of Commons are just not matching up with the requirements to provide this.
‘Poor performance, without adequate support, is increasing. I know they are being pressed from on high, but the elastic will break.
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