Call issued for more midwives

2:36pm Thursday 3rd May 2007

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A Bradford midwife is spearheading a national campaign to plug the national shortage of midwives.

Midwivesonline.com - a website founded by Catharine Parker-Littler to offer maternity advice for expectant and new parents - is lobbying the Government for 10,000 midwives to be trained over the next two years.

The Little-Germany-based organisation has already attracted 7,000 signatures on a petition calling on the Government to do more to save the lives of mothers and babies who are at risk due to a national shortage of midwives.

The call comes as a BBC Panorama documentary broadcast last night claimed maternity wards in the NHS were buckling under a shortage of midwives.

Government figures show the Yorkshire and Humber region suffered the biggest drop in the number of full-time equivalent midwives in the UK - losing 141 from 2005 to 2006 - down to 1,906. At present, about 19,000 are employed nationally but the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) says 3,000 more are needed.

Mrs Parker-Littler, of Baildon, said the situation in Bradford is no different from two-thirds of the country's maternity units which are under-staffed, when judged against RCM guidelines of having one midwife to 28 births.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust employs 192 midwives - the equivalent of 164 full time staff - which is one midwife per 35 births of the 5,864 babies born at the hospital last year.

Mrs Parker-Littler, of Bail-don, said: "We recognise the very critical and important role that midwives play in supporting women throughout pregnancy and labour.

"However we also recognise how thinly-stretched midwives are in front-line clinical practice. We want to play our part in representing the concerns of all midwives, mothers-to-be and new mums and dads."

Airedale NHS Hospital Trust employs 96 midwives - the equivalent of 76 full time staff. This works out at about one midwife for 31 of the new babies born at the hospital in 12 months from last April.

However, both hospital Trusts said they have no freeze on recruiting midwives - bucking a national trend.

A Bradford Hospitals Trust spokesman said: The foundation trust does not have any recruitment freeze in place and we are currently recruiting midwives. Our maternity unit currently employs 192 midwives. During the past three years, the number of midwives we employ has remained broadly the same.

"Our maternity unit continues to be one of the highest-quality units in the country"

A RCM spokesman said more midwives were needed to address a rise in the numbers of babies being born.

Mrs Parker-Littler said: "This is an issue that affects everyone - mothers, fathers, children and grandparents - because it strikes at the very heart of every family.

"A lack of midwives is putting the lives of mothers and babies at risk and the statistics clearly show there is a steep rise in the amount of avoidable injuries and deaths during childbirth. This is an unacceptable situation to have in the UK and we want to ask people to sign our petition to get this changed."

Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies, who has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons in support of the midwivesonline.com campaign, said: "We cannot allow such gross negligence on the part of our national healthcare system, which is failing parents."