Health: Midwives

Earl of Listowel Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the Government are committed to improving the choice of place of birth for women, continuity of care for mothers and the experience of care that they have. There are now 1,800 more full-time equivalent midwives than in May 2010 and there is a record number—in excess of 5,000—in training at the moment. The most recent data from November last year show that the number of midwives has increased at twice the rate of the number of births—by more than 6% since May 2010. We know that we need more midwives in the service but they are coming down the pipeline.

[The Earl of Listowel (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware of the Australian research which suggests that the NHS could save £300 per birth if it adopted the one-to-one midwifery model? Might he consider how to encourage clinical commissioning groups and health and well-being boards to commission caseload midwifery? This has proved very effective in reducing the number of episiotomies and in encouraging, for instance, breastfeeding.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am very interested to hear what the noble Earl says about the Australian experience. The mandate that the Government issued to NHS England, published in November 2012, states that women should receive better care during pregnancy and have a named midwife responsible for ensuring personalised, one-to-one care throughout pregnancy and childbirth, as well as postnatally. As part of that, we want NHS England to work with partner organisations to ensure that women are able to make informed and safe choices about where to have their baby. However, it is probably too soon to commit to a ratio of one midwife to one expectant mother.