A pregnant Nottingham mum has started a petition for a hospital trust to reinstate its full time home birth service. Mum-of-two Jess Maguire says Nottingham University Hospitals' (NUH) limited service means expectant parents in the county are unable to make a choice about where they give birth.
NUH, which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, currently only offers a home birth service between the hours of 9am-8pm, Monday to Friday. The NHS trust says it has a 25 percent vacancy rate for midwives, meaning it cannot secure appropriate staffing for later hours.
Ms Maguire, a 34-year-old doula and hypnobirthing teacher who is due to give birth next month, said she had repeatedly been told by NUH the full service would resume before it was set back. “It’s sad that people can’t make the choice about where they want to give birth, it’s really frustrating," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
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"It’s just really not nice. They are running a home birth service but they can’t do a nighttime birth. I know there are staff shortages and I sympathise as they work in terrible conditions. I don’t blame the midwives, it’s a management issue."
Ms Maguire, who lives in the Meadows, gave birth to her second son at home in 2020 when NUH ran a 24-hour service. "I had my son at five in the morning, the midwife came at about 2am," she recalled.
The mum questioned why the trust could not offer a full time service like nearby trusts such as University Hospitals of Leicester. "We are just asking for a bit of priority. In the long run it will save them resources as the mums are not going to need the extra care in the hospital."
She said she had launched the petition, currently signed by more than 100 people, to help get a group of mum's voices together. “They know I’ll give birth and leave them alone," said Ms Maguire.
During a monthly Q&A video published on October 27, NUH's director of midwifery Sharon Wallis said the trust was doing its best to get the service up and running. "It really pains me to say that we haven't improved our home birth service," she said.
"But please let me assure you that we do offer a home birth service. It is limited, we are struggling to staff our nights. We will support women on a case-by-case basis and sometimes we can support at night as well."
Ms Wallis she did not want to give a date on when a 24/7 service would return, admitting the trust had not met that target on numerous occasions in the past. Chief nurse Michelle Rhodes said: “Our staff work tirelessly to provide every woman who wants one with a home birth. To do this, we must ensure that the appropriate staffing is in place to support women and their babies safely.
"We are taking a number of actions to increase the number of community midwives, including active and ongoing recruitment, supporting hospital midwives to work in the community and using agency and bank staff where appropriate.”
NUH's maternity services are currently subject to a review led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden. It comes after dozens of cases of deaths and harm, as well as 'inadequate' ratings by inspectors.
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The scope of Nottingham maternity review which will cover baby deaths from 2012
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- CQC demands 'widespread and rapid' maternity service improvements at NUH
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