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Temporary suspension of home birth service
Introduction
Wye Valley NHS Trust has temporarily paused its home birth service while it carries out a thorough review of how the service is delivered.
Although no safety concerns have been identified, this decision follows a national request for all NHS Trusts to assess the sustainability and safety of their home birth provision.
The temporary suspension will allow the Trust to ensure that the service continues to be delivered safely and consistently across Herefordshire.
Home births remain a safe option for those with low‑risk pregnancies, provided they are supported by midwives with the appropriate skills, experience, and training.
Complications during labour can arise unpredictably, so ensuring the right expertise is available is essential. In the last year, around 1,600 babies were born in Herefordshire, with only 18 of these births taking place at home.
During this pause, the Trust will undertake a full risk assessment and explore how best to balance offering birth choices whilst maintaining a safe service for all of our families.
Community midwives will continue to provide antenatal and postnatal care. The midwifery team will contact anyone considering a home birth to offer personalised consultations, birth planning, and further support as we appreciate that this is causing additional distress to those who were planning to birth at home.
What happens now?
The temporary suspension of the service currently has no fixed timescale, but the Trust’s midwifery leadership team is holding regular meetings to monitor progress against the agreed actions.
There is no specific deadline for completing the review, though the aim is to keep the suspension as short as possible.
The review is being led by the Trust’s Director of Midwifery with oversight from the Chief Nursing Officer to ensure Board-level visibility.
The review will focus on ensuring that all staff who take part in the homebirth service are confident to support families during homebirth and have the equipment to provide support as outlined in the most recent national guidance from the resuscitation council.
The Trust’s Maternity Safety Champions, both executive and non‑executive, will contribute through regular review and make recommendations to the Board.
Once the review is complete, the Trust Board will make decisions on next steps.
Home birth suspension of services – Frequently Asked Questions
Since we made the decision to temporarily suspend the service we have received a number of questions from members of the public and staff, so we’ve pulled the most frequently asked questions together with answers to help you understand why we have taken this decision, and what happens now.