Maternity workforce review published

Using midwives and other maternity staff more effectively is the key to improving maternity care in hospitals, according to findings of a review led by King's, commissioned by The King's Fund. Despite the fierce debate over midwife numbers, increasing staffing levels will not be easy in the current financial climate. Evidence shows that the maternity workforce could be utilised more effectively to improve outcomes for mothers and babies. The review considered current evidence around maternity workforce staffing and deployment as well as safety in labour and birth for women and babies. UK stakeholders were also interviewed about innovations in practice through workforce changes. The report recommends deploying midwife-led care much more widely for women at a low and medium risk of problems, with the potential to improve outcomes for women and babies and to save costs to the NHS. In 2009/10, only 10 percent of hospital births in England took place in midwife-led wards.