Wexham Park Hospital: Call for more midwives amid rise in mums needing complex care

More midwives are needed at Wexham Park Hospital to support the increasing number of expectant mothers requiring complex care during pregnancy and childbirth, a report has said.

Of the 4,300 annual births at the Slough hospital, more than 70 per cent were what are considered more complex cases such as caesarean or early deliveries.

Less than five per cent were ‘the most normal and healthy outcome possible’ where mothers did not need treatment during and after labour or childbirth.

The call for more midwives comes as data from NHS England shows almost half of all women give birth through caesarean, and a similar number do so with some form of medical intervention.

Underlying reasons for the rise in cases include more people living with complex conditions and people having children later in life.

Wexham Park is run by NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust, which also runs Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey where a similar distribution of complex pregnancies and births were seen.

The trust’s midwifery staffing review, taken from its 2025 birthrate report for Wexham Park and Frimley Park, suggested an additional 21-22 midwives were needed across the two hospitals.

The move would come at a £892,381 cost if each of the midwives were recruited on a £41,429 salary, the staffing review said.

Data from the Wexham Park Hospital Birthrate Plus Report found there was a 7.4 increase in the two most complex birth categories compared with previous reviews.

In 2021, 65.3 per cent of births were considered in these categories, while the figure was 72.7 per cent in the 2025 report.

These cases included women choosing to give birth by caesarean or needing one in an emergency, needing drugs to help induce labour, or needing epidural pain relief during birth.

“Women in category five need to be allocated more staff time to cover their care needs compared with women in category one who will have no additional complexities or comorbidities apart from pregnancy…,” the staffing report said.

“The increase of women in Categories III-V had increased at both sites from the review undertaken in 2021 to the review in 2024 demonstrating a rise in the complexity of the women within Frimley Health.”

More complicated pregnancies increase the workload on individual midwives and has led to the need for more, the report said.

NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust directors will be asked to approve the report’s recommendation at a meeting this afternoon (January 16).

Opting not to pursue the increase in staffing ‘would affect both reputational and financial risks for the organisation’, the report said.

It cited a near £5million payout by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust over maternity failings in 2025.

The report added: “In addition, the CQC [Care Quality Commission] report from 2018 cross site was a ‘Must Do’ that stated ‘there were insufficient midwives to provide care that met national standards’.

“There is a risk to the department that the trust will receive a ‘requires improvement’ rating if we cannot demonstrate meeting the national standards for safe staff as recommended.”