Nearly five-thousand* more midwives will be needed by 2012 - not three thousand as originally calculated - if the Government is to meet its targets for maternity services in England, says the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). The new figure comes as the number of working midwives fails to keep pace with a steadily rising birthrate.

The College had originally said that 3000 more midwives were need to provide the level of service outlined in Maternity Matters, the Government's blue-print for England's maternity services launched in April this year. This figure was based on the Government's official birthrate forecast, which has proven to be significantly below the actual rate.
There has been a 12.5% increase in the birthrate since 2001 - up from 564,871 in 2001 to 635,679 in 2006. Against this midwife numbers have risen just 4.5% since 1997 – from 18,053 to 18,862 in 2006, with 2006 seeing a drop in numbers on the previous year.**

The RCM has identified the trends that threaten to derail the Government's maternity plans. These include:

• Fewer midwives being trained (1)
• Newly qualified midwives struggling to find jobs because of the ongoing problems of NHS finances (2)
• Other countries such as the USA and Australia needing to recruit significantly more midwives in the future, leading to recruitment of UK midwives and also overseas midwives who have helped the UK to plug gaps in its midwifery workforce
• Nearly half of all midwives are set to retire in the next decade (3)
• Births are becoming more complex. In a RCM survey of Heads of Midwifery in May 2007 over half (53%) said their births were becoming more complex.

Louise Silverton, Deputy General Secretary of the RCM, said: "We support the Government's plans for maternity services. However, we have real concerns about the Government's ability to deliver because there are simply not enough midwives. Our new figures have made us even more doubtful and we have to seriously question what the Government is doing about it. "Things are moving backwards not forwards. Planning, investment and resources are needed now if the Government's targets and ambitions for maternity services are not left hanging in tatters. Ultimately it will be women and their babies who suffer a poorer service, and midwives will be left under-resourced and over-stretched. "The Government's grand plans are simply not reflected in the reality of what is happening on the ground, and there is a real crisis on the horizon unless action is taken now."

For more information contact the RCM Press Office on 020 7312 3432.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) aims to promote and advance the profession of the midwife. The RCM represents over 95% of the UK's midwives and is one of the world's oldest and one of the largest midwifery organisations, and celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2006. It is also a trade union.

For more information visit the RCM website at www.rcm.org.uk.

*This figure is for Five-thousand Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) midwives and is not a simple head count figure.

**These figures do not include stillbirths, and are based on provisional figures from National Statistics. The figure for the number of midwives taken from NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Non-Medical Workforce Census, England: 30 September 2006, published 26 April 2007 by The Information Centre (www.ic.nhs.uk).

1. There were 2,374 NHS midwifery training places commissioned in 2004/05, this dropped to 2,220 in 2005/06, and it dropped again to 1,990 in 2006/07. That is a drop of 384 places (or 16%) in just two years. 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 figures taken from Maternity Matters; 2006/2007 figures given in answer to a written parliamentary question from Andrew George MP, Hansard, 28 June 2007, c847W.

2. Council of Deans briefing July 2007.

3. RCM survey (December 2005) of 6000 RCM members found that half the respondents were planning to retire between now and 2017; analysis of the Nursing and Midwifery Council register shows that between 2001 and 2005, the proportion of midwives aged under 40 fell from 44% to 32%, while the number aged 50 and above increased from 20% to 26%

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