Birth centres to ease pressure on hospitals

More mothers-to-be will be sent to specialist centres to give birth to ease the pressure on over-stretched hospitals, it can be revealed today.

Increasing numbers of women will also be able to choose to have their babies at home.

Health chiefs said today a review had found labour wards in Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton hospitals had all seen significant increases in births.

Russells Hall Hospital is expected to deliver 333 more babies this year than expected, Walsall will see 277 extra births and New Cross will have 110 extra babies born.

A £1 million specialist midwife-led centre for low-risk pregnancies opened in Smethwick in October.

Two more are also in the pipeline for Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The new Walsall unit delivering 800 babies a year will open in the spring earmarked for the Homer Building in Charles Street.

A similar unit will open in Wolverhampton for as many as 1,000 births later in 2012.

Midwives will also be available to support more home births if mothers choose that option, as long as it is deemed clinically safe.

Across the Black Country there were 164 home births during 2010 to 2011.

Andy Williams, director of commissioning at the Black Country Cluster of PCTs, said today: "It is our priority to ensure women are offered a choice of birthing options that range from home birth to midwife or consultant-led care.

"We will not compromise on quality and will ensure that all the options available provide women with a clinical safe environment in which to give birth."

Meanwhile the number of births at Stafford Hospital has dropped by more than 450 with many now travelling into the Black Country.

The hospital had handled 2,400 births in 2008 to 2009.