Warning over shortage of midwives

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The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said it had upwardly revised its assessment of the number of new midwives needed by 2012 from 3,000 to 5,000 in the light of higher birth-rate figures.

The RCM claimed recruitment was not keeping pace with a rising birth-rate, which had increased 12.5% since 2001 - from 564,871 that year to 635,679 in 2006.

Midwife numbers had risen just 4.5% since 1997, from 18,053 to 18,862 in 2006, it added.

The RCM warned that fewer midwives were being trained while the newly-qualified ones were struggling to find jobs because of poor NHS finances.

It also said that countries such as the US and Australia would take midwives overseas to meet their own demand. Meanwhile, almost half of all midwives are set to retire within a decade.

Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the RCM, expressed "real concerns" about the Government's ability to improve maternity services.

"Our new figures have made us even more doubtful and we have to seriously question what the Government is doing about it," she said.

"Things are moving backwards not forwards. Planning, investment and resources are needed now if the Government's targets and ambitions for maternity services are not left hanging in tatters. Ultimately it will be women and their babies who suffer a poorer service, and midwives will be left under-resourced and over-stretched.

"The Government's grand plans are simply not reflected in the reality of what is happening on the ground, and there is a real crisis on the horizon unless action is taken now."