English women 'get a raw maternity deal'

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The Royal College of Midwives warned Gordon Brown that he would "pay the electoral price" for any failure.

Dame Karlene Davis, general secretary of the college, said the experience of singer Charlotte Church showed that women in Wales got a better deal than in England. Miss Church, 21, who has a baby girl with rugby player Gavin Henson, is believed to have had a water birth last week at home in Glamorgan.

Dame Karlene said: "Why should it be possible for Charlotte Church to give birth at home in water and for women in England not to have that opportunity?"

The Welsh Assembly set a target for home births of 10 per cent. The average stands at 3.6 per cent but is higher than anywhere in the UK. The average in London is under two per cent.

Dame Karlene spoke out after Health Secretary Alan Johnson promised 1,000 extra midwives within two years. The college says 5,000 are needed.

Dame Karlene said: "Where are they going to bring back 1,000 midwives from? It takes three years to train one."

She told a fringe meeting of the Labour conference in Bournemouth: "Let me be nakedly political. Get maternity services right and you get people thinking and feeling better about the NHS as a whole. Get maternity services wrong and you will pay the electoral price."

rcm.org.uk
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