Midwives to take lead in maternity (From This Is Local London)

Midwives to take lead in maternity

9:46am Tuesday 13th February 2007 in

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Midwives rather than consultants will take the lead under a major expansion of Kingston Hospital's maternity department.

The move, which was approved by the hospital board on Thursday, will create more than 30 posts for midwives to work alongside the 114 already at the hospital, and allow for another 500 births a year - a 10 per cent increase.

It is good news for the 50 women a month who want to give birth at Kingston but are turned away.

Christine Swabey, chairwoman of the hospital board, said: "This is an excellent plan, it is good news both for the hospital and for the women we turn away who want to have their babies here. It is about patient choice for local women."

Most women will register with a midwife rather than a consultant obstetrician, who will be freed up to work on more difficult pregnancies. The hospital's Malden Suite, where about 200 women a year give birth, has midwives on hand and the option of using birthing pools.

Andrew Pooley, lead clinician for obstetrics and gynaecology, said the new system will encourage more women to choose a midwife-led birth.

"At the moment about 40 per cent of women having babies have no medical input of any kind, such as an epidural. They could be cared for through the midwife-led area, which only 20 per cent use at the moment.

"We want to encourage more women to consider the options, as it will allow the obstetricians to concentrate more on the women with complications," said Mr Pooley.

The hospital is now interviewing for 15 midwives to join the service and hopes to employ another 17 after that, meaning more women will be able to give birth in Kingston in about six months time.

The expansion is partly in response to the planned downgrading of maternity at Epsom Hospital, which will mean more demand from patients in the Worcester Park area. "We are seen by Epsom and St Helier as predatory - we don't see ourselves as that. We are at best opportunistic," Mr Pooley told the hospital board.

If the new service is successful, hospital bosses hope to expand still further and perhaps extend the department building - which would secure Kingston's future as a maternity hospital in the competitive NHS culture.

Richmond Park MP Susan Kramer welcomed the plan to expand. She said: "So many women in my constituency have to go to St George's in Tooting, and travelling in a car in the late stages of labour is agony.

"I hope they find the right number of experienced midwives."