The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS) believes that action is needed to shore up a service losing staff “at a catastrophic rate”. Jon Skewes, RCM executive director for external relations, agrees. “The situation has become intolerable,” he says. “Retention has to be a focus. The rate at which numbers dropped last year should serve as a wake-up call to a problem that could get much worse without Government intervention.

“Midwives have dealt with shortages for years,” he adds. “If this becomes a bushfire, the prospects for students coming in, without experienced midwives to guide them, are poor and the impact on women is worrying.”

Warning signs of a shortage have existed for 20 years, midwives point out. Some 90 per cent of RCM members felt unvalued by the Government, while 75 per cent said they skipped meals due to demands on skeleton staff. 

Alexa’s complicated birth last October, followed “limited” antenatal care, she recalls. “Appointments were extremely rushed,” she says. “If I’d had this experience of maternity care with my first child I don’t think I’d have had the confidence to give birth again.”

Sisters Beth Honig and Alana Honig-Joselyn both gave birth, for the first time, last year, in London. Beth, 38, a fundraiser, had son, Lemn, in July. “There were one or two midwives running between three wards the night he was born,” she says. “Mums were helping each other with their babies because there was no one to answer when we pressed the bell. Those midwives did an extraordinary job in difficult circumstances, but there simply weren’t enough.”

Alana, 33, a mental health nurse, planned a home birth with daughter, Millie, in September, but was sent to a birthing centre, during labour, after being told that a midwife could no longer come out to her. “We had the pool set up and my contractions were two minutes’ apart,” she says. “The system is failing, not the midwives. As a first-time mum, it was worrying.”