Twelve Midwife-Led Birth Centres Have Closed in England Since 2019, Six Under Labour

Twelve midwife-led birth centres have closed in England since 2019. Six of those closures have been permanent and came after Labour took power in July 2024.

The permanent closures are in Rossendale, east Lancashire; Edgware, north London; Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire; Stafford and Lichfield, Staffordshire; and Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

Four more centres are listed as closed "temporarily," some for up to six years. Childbirth groups fear they will never reopen. Two others shut because the hospital buildings housing them are falling apart, and they will stay out of action for several years until new facilities are built.

Home births are also being squeezed

The loss of centres is not the only change. NHS bodies in England and Wales have suspended home birth services for as long as 14 months in some areas.

The result is a narrower menu. A woman is supposed to be able to choose between a hospital unit run by doctors, a midwife-led centre, or her own home. In a growing number of places, that choice is gone.

The Royal College of Midwives has warned that women shut out of midwife-led NHS care may pay for private midwives or give birth at home with no health professional present.

What the NHS says

NHS bodies that have closed centres generally cite staffing. They say they do not have enough midwives to run the service safely. Falling birth rates, more complex births and a rise in caesarean sections are also cited as pressures.

The BBC's own analysis found that one in four births in England is now an emergency caesarean.

In August, the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust suspended standard birthing services at the hospital in Barnstaple. Mothers now face a 53-mile trip to Exeter. The trust called the suspension the "only safe course of action" and said it had explored locum cover and help from other organisations first. It said a "readiness assessment" would follow in October, with patient safety the "overriding priority."

Campaigners: this is a rights issue

Birthrights chief executive Hazel Williams called the restrictions "shocking." "These are not luxury options or nice-to-haves," she said, arguing that the closures cut into a woman's right to choose how she gives birth.

Tope Medupin, acting chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said local closures mean "longer journeys, higher costs, greater uncertainty and fewer options for care." She said workforce shortages and "crumbling estates" remain unresolved.

Managers: consolidate or risk safety

The NHS Alliance, which represents health managers, takes a different view of the same problem. It says the way maternity care is organised is "not fit for purpose" and that safety is at risk.

The group warned that up to 20 of England's 155 consultant-led maternity units could face closure. It singled out smaller units delivering 1,500 to 2,000 babies a year, particularly in rural and coastal areas. It said some struggle to keep enough midwives and obstetricians for round-the-clock cover.

"Difficult decisions lie ahead, consolidating maternity services to support safer, more sustainable care," said Matthew Hopkins, the Alliance's director of acute and ambulance network. He said politicians "must have the courage to make the case for patient safety."

These are two separate tiers. The 12 closures are midwife-led centres. The Alliance's warning concerns doctor-led hospital units. Both point the same way: fewer places to give birth, and longer drives to reach them.

Doctors want a different answer

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists does not accept that closure is the only route. President Dr Alison Wright called for "other solutions" and urged the government to commit to expanding the maternity workforce, with investment in training and retention.

She said the needs of smaller units in rural and coastal communities "must be recognised and supported."

The Department of Health and Social Care has said every woman deserves safe maternity care. It says its taskforce on neonatal and maternity care "will deliver the reforms needed to ensure services meet the needs of women and families now and in the future." It has not said which, if any, units it expects to close.

The NHS Alliance wants that taskforce to deal with deprived-area outcomes and higher maternal mortality rates among Black and Asian women. It says that cannot happen without tackling the shortage of specialist staff.

Some services are coming back

Not every closure is permanent. The Huddersfield birth centre closed in November 2020 because of Covid and has still not reopened.

In Gloucestershire, the hospitals trust says it plans to reopen the Cheltenham centre in February after it was closed in 2022. Home birth services there are expected to resume in January.

Whether those dates hold will show if "temporary" closures can actually be reversed. The same question hangs over the four centres that have been shut for years and over Barnstaple's suspended maternity unit.