blinkx

  • 'Conveyor belt' maternity units

  • 00:01:15
  • ITN
    • Browse

'Conveyor belt' maternity units

Pressure on beds may be pushing new mothers out of hospital too early.According to research carried out for The Sunday Telegraph, more than half of women are going home within a day of giving birth.The figures have risen from 21 per cent to 51 per cent over the past 15 years.The increase in the number of mothers leaving hospital early comes at a time when the birth rate in England and Wales is at a 21-year high.Some midwives have described overstretched maternity units as "conveyor belts" struggling to cope with demand.They have said they have been forced to send mothers home before they had properly recovered from labour and become comfortable with basic baby care.Meanwhile, parenting groups have said many mothers are keen to be discharged as soon as possible as they found wards were busy, noisy and poorly staffed, and many were concerned about the risk of infections like MRSA.

ITN | April 27, 2008Watch more videos from ITN

Tags:. .units. .groups. .found. .rate. .number











According   Baby   Basic   Become   Beds   Belts   Birth   Care   Carried   Cent   Comfortable   Concerned   Conveyor   Cope   Demand   Described   Discharged   Early   England   Figures   Forced   Found   Groups   Half   Hospital   Increase   Infections   Keen   Labour   Leaving   Maternity   Meanwhile   Midwives   Mothers   Mrsa   Noisy   Number   Overstretched   Parenting   Past   Per   Poorly   Possible   Pressure   Properly   Pushing   Rate   Recovered   Research   Risen   Risk   Send   Soon   Staffed   Struggling   Sunday   Telegraph   Too   Units   Wales   Wards   Within   Women