The number of births at Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital will be capped to alleviate growing pressure on its maternity unit.

Resources have become stretched with more women choosing to have their baby at the hospital than in previous years. Dudley Group of Hospitals says it now needs to restrict the number of births “to maintain safe operating levels”.

The number has risen from 3,777 births in 2002/03 to 4,902 in 2010/11. The closure of Sandwell Hospital’s maternity unit, ahead of the opening of a new birthing centre in Smethwick, is one of the reasons for the increase in babies born at Russells Hall.

Around 28 per cent of all women applying to have their baby in Dudley are now from Sandwell. During the last three months of 2010/11 there was an increase of 69.7 per cent in bookings from Sandwell women on the same period in 2009/10. The Dudley hospital trust says the good reputation of its maternity unit has also led to more bookings from mothers-to-be.

Two options to cap birth numbers are now being  discussed by the hospital trust and NHS Dudley, which commissions maternity services in the borough.

Under the plans, staff would either restrict bookings from mothers-to-be based on “geographical boundary” or limit the intake over the maternity unit’s optimum level of 380 births a month. Director of operations and transformation Richard Beeken says in a report: “Despite full support of The Dudley Group of Hospitals executive board in funding the increase of midwife posts, difficulties remain for the unit in meeting the continued rise in bookings.”

He said the number of available beds would not be enough to meet the growing demand and said the unit was only equipped to meet optimum levels of 4,560 births a year.

Mr Beeken said women would be kept informed of their options and the alternative choice of maternity units, if their application to have their baby at Russells Hall was not successful.

Maternity services moved from Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich to City Hospital on Dudley Road in Winson Green in February. The new maternity unit in Smethwick is expected to be completed in October.

The structure of the £1million unit was completed earlier this year. The centre is being built on the site of the former Leasowes School in Oldbury Road, Smethwick.

The development will include three ens-uite birthing rooms, named Grace, Tranquillity and Harmony, all of which will include birthing pools and access to a sensory garden.

The long-term plan is that the £370m ‘super hospital’ proposed for Smethwick will eventually include a maternity unit and midwifery-led birthing centre.