A fifth of midwife-led maternity units are closed while a third stop offering home births

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

A shortage of midwives on NHS maternity units has doubled since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, with one in five midwifery posts now unfilled, raising concerns about the safety of pregnant women, new mothers and newborn babies.

The Royal College of Midwives is urging NHS leaders to ringfence maternity services as midwives are redeployed to care for people with Covid-19, fall sick themselves or are forced to self-isolate because of illness within their household.

Gill Walton, chief executive of the RCM, said: “While other areas of the health service can postpone and cancel procedures, there is still an ongoing need for maternity services. Women are still pregnant, still having babies, and they need the care and support of properly resourced maternity services.

“We have to ensure that midwives and maternity support workers are ringfenced from any redeployment to ensure that women continue to receive safe care.”

A survey carried out last week by the RCM, and covering every region of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, found the 10% vacancy rate in midwifery posts before the crisis had doubled to 20%.

More than a fifth – 22% – of survey respondents also reported that local midwife-led maternity units had closed. Almost a third (32%) had stopped offering home births, and a further 4% were limiting the option of giving birth at home.

In 11 cases, midwife-led maternity units had closed in order to increase facilities for assessing or caring for coronavirus patients.

The vast majority (78%) of midwifery leaders who responded to the survey said routine face-to-face antenatal and postnatal visits had ended, with a further 9% restricting face-to-face postnatal visits.

A number of NHS trusts have suspended home births as the crisis has escalated, amid reports that a growing number of pregnant women are seeking to avoid giving birth in hospital due to pressures on the health service and the perceived risks of exposure to Covid-19.

Private Midwives, a UK-based nationwide private midwifery service, said the number of inquiries it has received about home births has doubled in the past few weeks.

Coronavirus is exposing the gaps in maternity services. The shortage of midwives has doubled since the outbreak Gill Walton

The Homerton hospital in Hackney, east London, said last week it could no longer offer home births because it could not rely on the London Ambulance Service to provide backup.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde suspended home births “to allow us to concentrate our maternity staff in our hospitals to cover those who are absent from work because they are either self-isolating or symptomatic”.

Walton said: “What this survey shows is that coronavirus is exposing the gaps that already exist in maternity services. The shortage of midwives has doubled since the start of the outbreak, a situation that is only likely to worsen.”

She added: “We have to continue to provide the levels of care and support pregnant women need. The testing of NHS staff is an urgent priority.”