More choice in NHS maternity services promised by 2009

Hewitt promises more choice for expectant mothers by end of 2009 - Guardian

Extracts:

"By the end of 2009, every pregnant woman in England will be guaranteed the full range of choices about how and where to give birth, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, promised yesterday.

She committed the government to a drastic improvement in NHS maternity services, but could not say how many extra midwives would be needed or how much the fuller service would cost.

She told health authorities and trusts to work out the details and make decisions about how many hospitals would have to close maternity departments as consultant-led services are consolidated into fewer hi-tech specialist centres."

"Ms Hewitt claimed every NHS facility was safe. But she said inequalities across England were "shocking". Women living in families where both partners were unemployed were 20 times more likely to die in labour. Single mothers were three times more likely to die and women living in deprived areas 45% more likely."

"Dame Karlene Davis, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, warned that the NHS would have to recruit 1,000 extra fulltime midwives by 2009 and 3,000 by 2012 to implement the strategy. Andrew Lansley, the Conservative shadow health secretary, said Ms Hewitt had failed to reconcile her promises with closures or cutbacks at 43 maternity services and an increasing shortage of midwives."

British women may no longer be entitled to one-to-one care from a midwife during labour.

Women to give birth without care of a midwife - Telegraph

Extract:

"Women may no longer be entitled to one-to-one care from a midwife during labour, after a shift in Government policy set to be announced this week.

The Royal College of Midwives says any plans to go back on earlier pledges by allowing hospitals to use cheaper and less-skilled maternity support workers will increase the risks for women and babies.

Several recent reports have suggested that standards of maternity provision are falling as NHS trusts battle huge deficits, and more women are encouraged to have their babies at home. One report by the Conservatives suggested that around one in six of England's 282 maternity units could be shut down.

In its 2005 manifesto Labour promised that by 2009 all women would be cared for by a midwife throughout the pregnancy, and receive continuous care during the delivery. But "Maternity Matters", the strategy to be announced by Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, this week, is ex-pected to suggest that some women could give birth without the care of a midwife."