Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that all pregnant women have easy access to a midwife as a first point of professional contact.

All pregnant women can have access to a midwife as their first point of professional contact. The 2013/14 Choice Framework offers women the choice of going directly to a midwifery service or of going to their general practitioner (GP) when they find out they are pregnant. If a woman’s first point of professional contact is their GP she will then be referred to a midwifery service of her choice.

Trusts make information about direct access to maternity services available through a variety of means, for example via posters and leaflets in local pharmacies and GP practices, and by providing email access to midwives.

Encouraging early access to maternity care promotes greater choice for women and ensures women receive the right care at the right time, helping to tackle the negative impact of health inequalities from the start and improve the health and wellbeing of mother and baby.

To help achieve this, the Government is committed to increasing the number of midwives. There are now more than 1,700 full time equivalent midwives than in May 2010 and a record number, in excess of 6,000 in training.