Older mums are causing a maternity ward crisis

THE RISE in women delaying having babies until their 40s is creating a crisis on NHS maternity wards, leading midwives warn.

Births in this age group have increased by 78 per cent in a decade, with more than 29,000 in the last year alone.

But older mothers are at far higher risk of complications in labour and require dedicated care from midwives and doctors.

This means that medical staff have less time to help other women on ward and in some cases lives are being put at risk, according to the Royal College of Midwives.

In a report today, the College warns that this crisis will be compounded in the coming years due to a ‘midwifery time bomb.’

A third of midwives are in their fifties, and so over the next few years the NHS will lose thousands of frontline staff as well as vital expertise.

The College warns that many women are already suffering traumatic childbirths as they are being turned away from full maternity units or left alone after labour.

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the College said: ‘If we carry on as we are with midwives leaving the service as they retire, it’s just going to get worse.

‘There are certainly a significant numbers of maternity units where midwives are starting to say they don’t think they can do their job properly and I think they really are starting to be in a crisis situation.’

The College estimates that England needs at least an extra 2,600 midwives to cope with the increasing numbers of more complicated births, which is also partly due to rising obesity levels.

Older women – as well as those who are overweight – are more likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy, suffer life-threatening complications caused by high blood pressure.

They also often endure longer labours, and are more likely to need interventions including caesareans.

The report concludes: ‘A service that is thousands of midwives short operates under intense stress and strain, and cannot possibly provide the quality of care that women deserve.’

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there were 29,010 births to women over 40 last year, up from 16,260 in 2001.

Mrs Warwick added: ‘The whole thing is creating the potential for a major crisis. All women deserve the very best care, regardless of the age at which they give birth. Women have every right to give birth later in life, and we support that.

‘But typically older women will require more care during pregnancy, and that means more midwives are needed. It is deeply frustrating for midwives that they cannot provide the quality of maternity care that they want to deliver because they are so short-staffed.’

Earlier this month figures from the College showed that two fifths of maternity units had to close their doors to expectant mothers last year because they could not cope with the demands.

In total, that 41.4 per cent temporarily closed in 2014/15, up from 32.8 per cent in 2013/14 – including one unnamed hospital which had to close its maternity unit 33 times in 2014.

The NHS is currently undertaking a major review of maternity services, due to report back in the spring, looking at safety and quality of care.

It was commissioned in the wake of the Morecambe Bay maternity scandal where up to 30 mothers and babies are thought to have died between 2004 and 2011.

They include Joshua Titcombe, who developed an infection which could have been easily treated with antibiotics had it been picked up by midwives.

‘Midwifery time bomb’