Government ideal is far from reality, say midwives

The government may be keen on encouraging women to give birth at home, but it doesn't appear to have communicated that ideal to the NHS. Despite announcing this week that it was committed to home births, many hospitals cannot spare the staff to support the service. And in some areas, the home birth service has been suspended.

The Telegraph found that Lincolnshire recently suspended, and then partly-reinstated its home birth service, due to a shortage of midwives. Pregnant women in Louth are still unable to have home births.

Birth guru Sheila Kitzinger told the paper; 'There are not enough midwives to go round hospitals, let alone women's homes. In hospitals midwives are running between three or four different women which is dangerous and creates a serious situation.'

2004 saw 15,918 women give birth at home out of a total of 710,023 births. This was an increase from the previous year of 6.1 per cent in England, 18.1 per cent in Northern Ireland, 12.4 per cent in Scotland and 16.2 per cent in Wales.

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