The number of expectant women being asked to move to different hospitals because of the midwives struggling under their workloads is on the rise. In excess of half of the maternity wards have admitted that they’ve been forced to do the above on an average of seven times per year. Immigrants have fuelled the birth rates in England to reach a peak for 40 years.
The Royal College of Midwives, in a research, suggested that thousands of midwives would be needed in order to bridge the staffing gap so that the rising birth rate can be managed better and expecting mothers can be served better. RCM’s Chief executive, Cathy Warwick warned that overworked midwives would eventually lead to ‘threadbare’ services.
“The strain on maternity centres is unimaginable, and midwives are actually burnt out. This could be the tipping point as far as maternity services are concerned,” Cathy said. RCM’s State Of Maternity Services’ report, due to be launched tomorrow in a Parliamentary event, mentions that England will need a further 25% rise in the number of midwives, about 5,000, in spite of the continued attempts to make the number healthy.
Figures revealed by the Office for National Statistics shows that as many as 688,120 babies took birth in England in the year of 2011, highest since 1971. Official forecasts about the expected birth rates in the coming times are alarming, with 2012’s provisional data indicating another record breaking number.
ONS projections suggested that birth rate could hit the 743,000 mark by 2014. The biggest baby boom was observed in Corby in Northamptonshire. Here, a 63% increase was observed in the time period from 2002 to 2011. This was three times the corresponding rise in the baby birth rate across the whole of England.
