With her first baby due in a few weeks, Gemma Ricketts had made careful plans for a home birth, helped by a midwife she had come to know and trust during her pregnancy. A private maternity service called Neighbourhood Midwives, funded by the NHS, had offered her and many others exactly the kind of attention that was last month trumpeted by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, as he set out plans to make Britain “the best place in the world to give birth” – personalised, continuous care by a named midwife and greater choice for the expectant mother when planning her delivery.

So when she received an email out of the blue telling her that Neighbourhood Midwives, which operated in Walthamstow, north-east London, was closing down with eight days’ notice, Ricketts was shocked and distressed. The 33-year-old is one of scores of heavily pregnant women who have been left in the lurch. Many have been advised to sort out alternative care themselves, and little information has been offered about why the scheme has ended so abruptly. Nine midwives have lost their jobs.

“It was so sudden, there was almost no notice,” Ricketts told the Observer. “I feel I’ve gone from a gold standard of care to the bare legal minimum. We’ve been left on our own when we’re at our most vulnerable.”

Neighbourhood Midwives was a pilot project providing a high standard of antenatal, delivery and postnatal care that had NHS funding until November this year. Its closure on 31 January came less than a month after the government, as part of its 10-year plan for the NHS, outlined ambitious new maternity care plans that stressed a need for greater “continuity of care” so that women could be assigned a named midwife throughout their pregnancy who would stay with them during the birth and as they settled at home with their baby. Currently, women see several, if not more than a dozen, different midwives before, during and after birth. And the disappearance of a service like the one in Walthamstow has emphasised how far the UK has to go before it comes close to realising the government’s targets.

“Of course, we’d love to be the best place in the world to give birth,” said Helen Shallow, a leading midwife. “But that’s just fantasy land at the moment. For every step forward we take, we seem to take three steps back. It’s incredibly frustrating.” Midwifery-led care, such as that offered by Neighbourhood Midwives, has been shown to improve outcomes for pregnant women but was under-resourced, she said.

Despite the government’s ambitions, the UK remains short of 3,500 midwives – and the number of midwives coming to work in the UK from Europe has collapsed since the EU referendum. In the 12 months to March 2018, just 33 European midwives registered to work in the UK, compared with over 250 pre-referendum. In the same 12 months, 234 European midwives left the country.

Leila Reyburn found out about the closure of Neigbourhood Midwives in a text message from her midwife.

Since Neighbourhood Midwives was established in 2013 it has cared for more than 1,000 women. In 2016 it launched a two-year pilot scheme to provide NHS services as part of the government’s Better Births initiative, which was recently extended for a further year.

But on 25 January it posted a message on its Facebook page: “It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Neighbourhood Midwives on 31 January 2019.” It thanked women for their support, but added: “Sadly, this has not been enough to save our small organisation in these times of national economic uncertainty and change in NHS maternity services.” The responses posted below the message included “heartbroken”, “devastated”, “tragic news”, “absolutely gutted”.

Ricketts chose Neighbourhood Midwives because of its one-to-one service, with antenatal appointments conducted unhurriedly in the client’s home. She also wanted a home birth, with as little medical intervention as possible.

“Hospitals are chaotic, understaffed and have a greater likelihood of intervention,” she said. But now, with no clear idea of what can be arranged at a few weeks’ notice, she acknowledges that “my worst fears may be realised. Psychologically and emotionally, it has an impact.”She has found it difficult to get information or advice from Neighbourhood Midwives or the Waltham Forest clinical commissioning group (CCG), which is responsible for maternity provision in the area.

But, she added, she had been offered private care for £3,500.Leila Reyburn, 34, whose second baby is due in a few weeks, found out about the closure from a text message from her midwife. “It was a complete and utter shock. I burst into tears. Now I don’t know what’s happening,” she said. “None of the information sent to me gave an answer as to why this was happening. I was quite angry about that. Neither Neighbourhood Midwives or the CCG are taking responsibility and explaining the reasons for the closure. There’s something not being talked about, and it’s entirely unsatisfactory.”

Neighbourhood Midwives declined to speak to the Observer about the reasons for closure, saying its priority was to support women in its care and help them find alternatives, during “this very difficult time”. A brief statement from chief executive Annie Francis said: “We are sorry that we have had to take the decision to close.”

The Clinical Commissioning Group referred media inquiries to NHS England (London), whose spokesperson said in a statement: “The local NHS has worked together so that all women affected by this closure are provided with the same level of personal and safe maternity care, ensuring each woman is able to have the birth of their choice.” NHS England did not respond to a request for information about the closure.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, told the Observer: “It’s a mystery why the Neighbourhood Midwives service – which has near universal support – has suddenly closed, and it’s been a real shock to many users.

“Since last week, I’ve had a lot of women in touch very upset and now unclear about their birthing plan and who their midwife is, as well as previous users of the service who sing its praises and want it to continue.” She said she was in contact with the CCG “to try to get to the bottom of this and what caused the closure, as well as to make the case that the service should reopen”.