Hospitals cancel home births and shut down stand-alone maternity units

View
comments

Hospitals are suspending home births and shutting down stand-alone maternity units as the new strain of coronavirus puts the NHS under increasing pressure.

Since the start of the pandemic, home births have provided a solution for women whose hospitals banned them from having their partner at their side during labour.

But now, with the virus rapidly spreading, NHS Trusts across the South East have been cancelling home birth services, leaving mothers-to-be 'gutted'.

It comes after ambulance chiefs warned they could no longer guarantee to respond to women giving birth at home.

South East Coast Ambulance Service said: 'Due to the current pressures across our urgent and emergency care services, we are no longer in a position to guarantee an ambulance response to those women choosing to plan their birth at home or within one of the stand-alone birth centres in the region.'

While a number of Trusts have changed their rules to allow partners into wards, some hospitals that have cancelled home births continue to insist mothers-to-be attend scans and appointments alone , contrary to official guidance.

The Mail on Sunday has campaigned to end the trauma of pregnant women going through

read more from dailymail.....