12/08/2026
🏥 When maternity services are being suspended because there simply aren’t enough staff to keep them running safely, we need to pay attention to what that tells us about the state of our maternity workforce.
Whilst North Devon District Hospital has suspended births because of obstetric staffing issues, other maternity services and birth centres across the UK have suspended services due to unsafe midwifery staffing levels. When a maternity unit has to suspend services - even temporarily - the impact on women, families and staff can be huge.
For women in rural and coastal communities in particular, losing a local maternity service can mean travelling much further in labour, being further from support networks and having fewer choices about where to give birth.
Strong local health services are also vital to sustaining rural and coastal communities. Women and families should be able to rely on safe, accessible maternity care wherever they live.
We’re urgently calling on the Government to take meaningful action on safe staffing. Without urgent action on the workforce crisis, we risk seeing more disruption, more pressure on neighbouring units and fewer choices for women.
Safe staffing means safe, reliable maternity services 💜
