Rise in NHS birth centre closures ‘shocking’ denial of women’s rights, experts say
Özet haber: Twelve midwife-led maternity units have closed in England since 2019 with six closing since Labour came to power in 2024
Twelve midwife-led maternity units have closed in England since 2019 with six closing since Labour came to power in 2024
NHS officials are shutting growing numbers of birth centres in a “shocking” denial of a woman’s right to have a midwife rather than a doctor oversee their baby’s birth, say campaigners.
Twelve birth centres – midwife-led maternity units – have closed in England since 2019. Birth centres play a key role in ensuring that women can choose whether to have their baby at a unit in a hospital run by doctors, at one where midwives are in charge, or at home.
Six units have shut permanently since Labour came to power in July 2024. Four others have been closed “temporarily” for so long, up to six years, that childbirth groups fear they will never reopen. Two other birth centres closed because the hospitals where they were based have begun to fall apart and will remain out of action for several years until new facilities are built.
Women’s ability to choose where their baby is born is also being increasingly restricted in England and Wales by NHS bodies suspending home birth services for up to 14 months.
The wave of closures and suspensions is occurring because of the NHS-wide shortage of midwives, a falling birthrate, the growing complexity of childbirth and a rise in caesarean sections.
Campaigners say the loss of local childbirth services is denying women their right to choose and forcing them to travel from their home area to give birth.
The Royal College of Midwives said that women’s inability to access midwife-led care on the NHS risks them deciding to pay for private midwifery support or even have a baby at home with no health professional present.
Hazel Williams, the chief executive of Birthrights, said: “Over the past few years we have seen shocking restrictions on women and birthing people’s choices of place of birth, with more and more birth centre closures and restrictions and the option for NHS-supported home birth vastly reduced for many.
“These are not luxury options or nice-to-haves. This is about women and birthing people’s right to choose what happens to their bodies and their birth.”
The six permanent closures during Labour’s time in government have been in Rossendale, east Lancashire; Edgware in north London; Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire; Stafford and Lichfield in Staffordshire; and Pontefract in West Yorkshire. NHS bodies that have decided to close birth centres often stress they do not have enough midwives to staff the service safely.
Tope Medupin, the acting chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: “For women and birthing people the loss of a local service often means longer journeys, higher costs, greater uncertainty and fewer options for care at one of the most important times in their lives.
“Longstanding workforce shortages, crumbling estates and wider pressures on maternity services remain unresolved and women are increasingly expected to travel further for maternity care as a result. That cannot simply become the new normal.”
