Dozens of families have come forward with concerns their babies may have been killed or seriously injured at a “toxic” NHS maternity unit accused of being obsessed with natural births.

A Government-ordered review into 23 incidents at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH) may be expanded after it emerged an extra 40 cases have been flagged.

The extent of alleged malpractice between 1998 and 2017 threatens a scandal bigger than that of Morecambe Bay, which saw the avoidable deaths of 11 babies and one mother.

The latest deaths, those a mother and two babies, occurred as recently as December last year.

Rhiannon Davies, whose daughter Kate died in 2009 following delivery at SaTH, yesterday described the trust as “defensive” and “unwilling to learn”.

“If I were a pregnant lady today about to go into SaTH to have my baby I would be very, very worried,” she said.

However, the trust has defended the “continuous improvement” of its maternity service, arguing that only 12 of the 40 additional cases are a valid cause for concern.

Parents have said they were pressured into natural births in midwife-supervised units, claiming that a caesarean or forceps-assisted deliveries would have prevented brain damage.