Key Summary
- Home births suspended for two weeks while the Trust creates a safer staffing model
- Gloucestershire reflects a national trend, with 66% of Trusts facing home birth disruptions
- The pause comes as the Trust participates in a national maternity and neonatal care investigation
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust has suspended home birth services for two weeks citing safety concerns.
The decision was made to formulate a new staffing model, and the Trust issued an apology to the would-be mothers and their families.
The Trust claimed it was struggling to carry out night-time home births as they would have to extend the working hours of midwives and other staff.
Gloucester has four to six home births in a month and it is not the only one to suspend it.
Maternity rights charity Birthrights claims that 66 percent of NHS Trusts in the UK either suspended, strictly restricted, or frequently interrupted their home birth services between October 2023 and November 2024.
Gloucestershire is also part of a current national investigation into maternity and neonatal care across England.
The trust said it is “working on a risk assessment and options to find a balance between supporting choices for giving birth and managing the staffing levels to maintain safe care across the whole maternity service.”
