Tony Baldry says 5,000 more midwives needed to deliver safer maternity services

North Oxfordshire MP, Tony Baldry, has raised concerns with Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, over shocking new figures about the number of women dying in childbirth.

A new report, by Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health, shows that the mortality rate among mothers giving birth has increased by more than 50% since 1987.   Factors behind the increase include social deprivation and a shortage of midwives.

In a letter to Alan Johnson, Tony Baldry said plans to downgrade maternity services at the Horton General Hospital, against the will of some local midwives, would do little to help recruit new midwives and would pose a serious threat to mothers and babies.

Tony Baldry MP said:

"Health Ministers, who have not visited Banbury,  seem to be oblivious to the fact that the town has three of the wards with the highest social needs index of anywhere in the South East. The Deputy General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives is reported as saying that there is a need for at least 5,000 more midwives.  People in Banbury find it difficult to understand why the Government is determined to introduce the largest Midwife-Led maternity  Unit in the country in Banbury against the clear advice of the majority of local midwives.  

Such moves are unlikely to enhance midwife recruitment or retention. Reports such as 'Saving Mothers Lives' clearly indicate the need for more consultant obstetricians, greater consultant cover and more midwives, at the same time as Government policy at hospitals such as the Horton, is going in exactly the opposite direction."