Midwifery care

NCT believes that women should have access to a community midwife as soon as she realises she is pregnant. We believe that care during pregnancy, birth, and postnatally should be midwife-led.  Every woman should enjoy one-to-one care with her midwife and the midwife should be known to her. NCT would like all women to have a qualified midwife with them throughout their labour. This means from the moment a woman feels the need for support until after the birth is complete and she has fed her baby for the first time. Yet in many parts of the UK too few midwives are employed to achieve an acceptable level of support.

The midwife should preferably be one whom the woman has got to know during pregnancy and who will care for her during the postnatal period. Ideally, the same midwife should be present throughout the labour and birth, or at least for as long as her shift allows, since women value being cared for by a midwife whom they know, and need care from a fully qualified and experienced professional.

A key principle of Maternity Matters, published by the Department of Health in 2007 and applicable to England, is “all women will need a midwife and some need doctors too”. The document makes clear that midwives are the experts in normal pregnancy and birth and have the skills to refer to and coordinate between any specialist services that may be required. It says that midwives should have time to talk, engage and build a relationship with women and their partners and midwives should provide ‘individual support to women throughout their labour and birth’. 

In the Welsh National Service Framework (NSF) a target was set that by 2015 women will receive one-to-one care with a midwife once labour is established.

In Scotland A framework for maternity services states that pregnancy should be managed by midwives and all women should have a named midwife, to co-ordinate their care.

You may also be interested in the reviews of evidence on pregnancy and birth which were first published in NCT's professional development journal New Digest.