• About
    • Ethics policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Ownership, funding and corrections
    • Complaints procedure
    • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
Brighton and Hove News
25 June, 2025
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
Brighton and Hove News
No Result
View All Result
Home Brighton

Brighton short of midwives as 13 take maternity leave

by Frank le Duc
Tuesday 30 Nov, 2010 at 6:01AM
A A
0

Brighton’s main hospital is suffering from a shortage of midwives because so many of them are having babies themselves.

The shortage was raised during a House of Commons debate about proposals to scrap the £190 health in pregnancy grant last week.

It was mentioned by Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove, and fellow Tory MP, Daniel Poulter, the former Brighton doctor who represents Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.

Mr Weatherley will be visiting maternity services in Brighton and Hove on Friday (3 December) to learn more about the issues currently facing midwives, health chiefs, pregnant woman and new mothers.

He asked Dr Poulter: “Given my honourable friend’s experience, does he agree that some of that money would be better targeted on frontline services, especially midwives in areas such as my constituency where there is a shortage?”

Dr Poulter, who was a registrar at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton until last autumn, said: “If we want to make a real difference to pregnant women, the resources must be given to the front line.”

He told MPs attending the debate in Westminster Hall: “I had the experience of working at a Brighton hospital for a considerable number of months.

“There was a great shortage of midwives at my honourable friend’s local hospital.

“The pregnancy grant would be much better directed if it was used to improve care at the time of delivery, when we know that maternity care matters most in reducing the number of foetal deaths and in reducing poor outcomes in pregnancy and delivery.”

Detrimental

Dr Poulter, who was an obstetrics and gynaecology registrar at the Royal Sussex, said of the one-off pregnancy payment: “I accept that any intervention should encourage good behaviour.

“Unfortunately, what I saw in my clinical practice, and I speak also as the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity, is that unfortunately many mothers from vulnerable backgrounds were spending the grant on, among other things, cigarettes, which we know have a detrimental effect in pregnancy.

“There is also a high though often unseen rate of drug and alcohol misuse in pregnancy.

“The main problem with the grant is that it was not targeted, it was not effective and it was not making a difference at the time that we know matters to mothers, which is at birth and delivery.”

His call for more frontline staff is backed by the Royal College of Midwives which estimates that there is a national shortage of about 3,000 midwives.

The figure for Brighton and Hove fluctuates.

Dr Poulter said that when he was there, the hospital could have done with 20 to 30 more midwives.

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex, said: “We have an open advert running for midwives the whole time.

Maternity leave

“We have about the number of midwife posts we would like to have but ironically we have a lot of midwives on maternity leave.”

“We currently have 160 whole-time equivalent midwives.

“The absolute gold standard ideal is that we have one midwife for every 28 women who come in to give birth.

“What we currently have is one midwife for every 34 women.

“Next week we are interviewing 15 candidates and we will take as many of those who are qualified and suitable.

“We currently have 13 midwives off on maternity leave.”

Hannah Sherlock, who chairs the Brighton and Hove Maternity Services Liaison Committee and lives in Hove, said: “It’s a national problem.

“It’s not down to a particular hospital.”

“We need investment in midwives and we need to rethink how we’re organising our midwives.”

She said that the current set-up had too much in common with a conveyor belt and gave too little choice to mothers-to-be.

She said that money spent on midwives now would be recouped in the long term.

She cited recent research suggesting that women who had the support of continuous one-to-one midwifery care in labour felt more able to cope.

Such women were then less likely to need expensive interventions like an emergency caesarean section.

She added that were also huge gaps in the number of midwives available to give daily post-natal support for new mothers, who can be vulnerable and feel isolated.

She also said that investment in midwives would certainly help improve breastfeeding rates and that this was shown to reduce the chance of obesity in adulthood.

It would also help reduce postnatal depression which would have a lasting positive impact on the NHS budget, she said.

ShareTweetShareSendSendShare

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Most read

Independent businesses finally evicted by Co-op

Drug dealing claims could cost Hove restaurant its drinks licence

Up to three libraries face being shelved

Man held after late-night knifepoint mugging in Brighton

Council holds skateboarding session in square where skateboarding is banned

Brighton short of midwives as 13 take maternity leave

Man charged with rape

Brighton maternity deaths under review in national inquiry

Man tries to grab boy in Brighton street

Condemned: 8 council blocks of flats face demolition

Newsletter

Arts and Culture

  • All
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Food and Drink
Memorable performance at ‘Loud Women’ event in Brighton

Memorable performance at ‘Loud Women’ event in Brighton

24 June 2025
Help Me Help B Fundraiser with Yumi & The Weather

Help Me Help B Fundraiser with Yumi & The Weather

23 June 2025
Are The Haunt my ‘New Addiction’?

Are The Haunt my ‘New Addiction’?

21 June 2025
Oh! Darling Delivers Variety

Oh! Darling Delivers Variety

21 June 2025
Load More

Sport

  • All
  • Brighton and Hove Albion
  • Cricket
Sussex struggle to make it to day three against Nottinghamshire

Sussex snatch crucial late wicket as day two ends at Durham

by Thomas Ridley - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
23 June 2025
0

Durham 249-5 (82.1 overs) Sussex 361 (106.5 overs) Durham trail Sussex by 112 runs with five first innings wickets remaining....

Simpson steers Sussex into strong position on day two v Hampshire

Coles hits ton as Sussex see out day one at Durham

by Thomas Ridley - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
22 June 2025
0

Sussex 322-9 (96 overs) A resilient unbeaten century from James Coles for Sussex defied an excellent bowling performance from Durham’s...

Brighton and Hove Albion sign Italy international

Brighton and Hove Albion sign Italy international

by Frank le Duc
17 June 2025
0

Brighton and Hove Albion have signed a 21-year-old Italy international to add to the Seagulls’ defensive options. Diego Coppola has...

Sussex Sharks open T20 Blast with a win

Sussex Sharks stay top of their group with T20 triumph at Glamorgan

by Blake Bint - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
14 June 2025
0

Glamorgan 172 (18.5 overs) Sussex 199-7 (20 overs) Sussex won by 27 runs. Sussex 4 points, Glamorgan 0 points. Sussex...

Load More
November 2010
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Oct   Dec »

RSS From Sussex News

  • Homes evacuated as bomb disposal experts called in 24 June 2025
  • Child sex abuse claims in NHS units spark police investigation 23 June 2025
  • Man stabbed at railway station 22 June 2025
  • Planners approve £18m scheme for 36 homes on land next to hospital 21 June 2025
  • Sex attacker’s victim died days after court ordered retrial 19 June 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy
  • Complaints
  • Ownership, funding and corrections
  • Ethics
  • T&C

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Opinion
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
  • Sport
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Contact

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News