England is 5,000 midwives short claims Royal College.
The Royal College of Midwives [RCM] has just published its annual State of Maternity Services report.
The report quotes figures from the Office for National Statistics which show the number of new babies born, especially in England, is booming.
There were 688,120 babies born in England in 2011, 124,000 or 22 per cent more than in 2001, the highest number since 1971.
This trend is set to continue, at least until 2014, when 743,000 babies are expected to be born in England, a third more than in 2001.
And the number of older mothers is also increasing, up 81 per cent in England since 2001 - and older mothers can experience more complications during pregnancy and birth than younger women.
Yet the number of midwives has barely kept pace with these changes.
There were 3,000 more midwives in England in 2012 than 2001, up 19 per cent.
The Royal College of Midwives estimates that England is short of 5,000 full time midwives, and this shortage is affecting the quality of care they can provide.
It quotes a Bounty Word of Mum survey in 2012 which found 20 per cent of respondents did not feel supported by the NHS during their pregnancy and birth, 40 per cent said they saw a different midwife each time and 30 per cent said they were not adequately supported after the birth.
In 2011 half of the midwives in England were over 45 years old, compared to a third in 2002.
The government plans an extra 2,576 training places in 2012/13, which should help reverse this trend, so the number of training places in England should reach 6,000 for the first time – a development the report hails as a ‘real milestone’.
But the RCM said had recently received reports from newly-qualified midwives saying that they were finding it hard to find work.
“Student midwives’ hard work and taxpayers’ money invested in their valuable training should not be squandered by a short-sighted approach to cost reduction,” said the report.
According to the report, the baby boom has trailed off in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the RCM believes this should an opportunity to improve care, not cut midwife numbers.
Scotland has maintained training numbers, and the RCM believes there is not currently a shortage, but there could be in future, because of the age of current midwives.
The RCM has put Wales 'on watch', as training numbers have been trimmed and midwife numbers are falling.
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