Women paying up to £8,000 for private midwives amid frustration at NHS care

Growing number are opting for private maternity services as inquiry finds poor childbirth care is common

People are paying thousands of pounds to hire private midwives amid frustration at the poor service many patients face in the NHS, with women left feeling fobbed off and ignored.

Growing numbers are paying up to £8,000 for maternity services, adding to a surge in people going private as the NHS struggles to provide swift and safe care.

Last month MPs found that women in labour had been mocked, ignored and left with permanent damage by NHS midwives and doctors. The UK’s first inquiry into birth trauma found poor childbirth care was so common, and its consequences so damaging, that ministers and NHS bosses needed to push through significant changes.

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Heatwaves increase risk of early births and poorer health in babies, study finds

Research that looked at 53 million births says Black and Hispanic mothers and those in lower socioeconomic groups most at risk

Heatwaves increase rates of preterm births, which can lead to poorer health outcomes for babies and impact their long-term health, a new study found.

Black and Hispanic mothers, as well as those in lower socioeconomic groups, are particularly at risk of delivering early following heat waves.

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‘I felt guilty’: women reveal harrowing details to groundbreaking NSW birth trauma inquiry

Report calls for urgent efforts after receiving 4,000 submissions including from patients, doctors, midwives and experts around Australia

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For a year after her daughter’s birth, Jessica Santos felt disappointed in herself.

When she arrived at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital to give birth, the midwife who had supported her throughout her pregnancy was not able to help her, despite being on shift that day.

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You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to buy sperm

It’s easier than ever for single women to have children on their own ... or so I thought. Then began my $17,000 journey

One night in September 2022, like a kid sticking my finger into the flame of a candle, I Googled “how to buy sperm”.

I’d been thinking about it since splitting with a partner a year earlier. I was about to turn 37, and had started wondering if continuing on the “traditional” path – meeting someone, getting to know them well enough to decide to have children together, attempting to get pregnant – might cost me the chance to have kids.

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Women advised to pair effective contraception with ‘skinny jabs’

Amid baby boom reports linked to drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, experts say it would be ‘wise’ to take extra precautions

Claims that “skinny jabs” are fuelling an unexpected baby boom have led experts to warn women to pair their use with effective contraception.

Medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic, both of which contain semaglutide, have become hugely popular, not least because they can help people lose more than 10% of their body weight.

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NHS England spent £4.1bn over 11 years settling lawsuits over brain-damaged babies

Exclusive: £3.6bn has been paid out in 1,307 cases, according to information obtained under freedom of information laws

The NHS has spent £4.1bn over the last 11 years settling lawsuits involving babies who suffered brain damage when being born, amid claims that maternity units are not learning from mistakes.

It paid out just under £3.6bn in damages in 1,307 cases in which parents were left to care for a baby with cerebral palsy or other forms of brain injury, NHS figures reveal.

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Our maternity services need radical change. Women must reclaim birth | Letter

Wendy Savage on the Albany Midwifery Practice and missed chances to improve care for mothers and babies

Re your letters on how maternity services are failing mothers and babies (17 May), your readers are correct – there is a fundamental problem with our maternity services, which need radical change. As the World Health Organization stated in 1985, “birth is not an illness”; but NHS services treat childbirth as if it is.

In 1992, after years of campaigning, birth activists were delighted when the select committee chaired by Nicholas Winterton made far-reaching recommendations about reorganisation. The government responded by setting up a working party chaired by Julia Cumberlege. They reported in 1993 that women should be at the centre of care, midwives should have a greater and more autonomous role, and that there should be continuity of care.

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