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Maternity units in England are so overstretched that women are being forced to give birth in car parks, lifts and toilets. Email us
According to figures obtained by the Conservative party, the number of women giving birth outside of hospital care is on the rise.
Last year in England almost 4,000 births were recorded in locations other than a hospital bed, a figure which had significantly grown from the 3,500 cases of 2007. Examples of these places include midwife offices, caravans and ambulances.
Bed shortages
While many of these are genuine emergencies, the concern surrounds those cases which are a direct result of maternity services being overstretched.
Labour have cut the number of maternity beds by 22 per cent since 1997, and previous research reveals that maternity units in England refused care to women in labour 553 times in 2008 because they had reached their capacity. It is suspected that these figures are underestimated because several hospitals failed to return all of their data.
Criticism of Labour
Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley said, "It is disgraceful that so many mothers are being put through the trauma of giving birth in such inappropriate places."
He continued, "It shows the incredible waste that has taken place that mothers are getting worse treatment when Gordon Brown has more than tripled spending on the NHS since 1997. Labour have let down mothers by cutting the number of maternity beds and by shutting down maternity units."
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