NHS Maternity Unit's 'Normal Birth' Focus Under Scrutiny After Infant Deaths
A major NHS hospital trust is facing an independent inquiry after pursuing a 'normal birth' ideology for over a decade, a policy that allegedly contributed to a dramatic spike in stillbirths and newborn deaths.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTH) maintained one of Britain's lowest caesarean section rates between 2012 and 2023, a period during which its rates of stillbirths and neonatal mortality climbed to become the worst in the country.
A Policy of Minimal Intervention
Internal documents reveal the trust's explicit strategy. In its 2015 maternity strategy, hospital leadership instructed doctors to actively promote natural or vaginal birth with minimal medical interventions.
This approach has been blamed for creating a dangerous culture where midwives and doctors were reportedly waiting too long to intervene during difficult labours. There are also concerns that mothers were subjected to prolonged and traumatic forceps deliveries in an effort to avoid performing a caesarean section.
Alarmingly, the Leeds strategy was published just months after a damning report criticised Morecambe Bay Trust for pursuing normal birth 'at any cost'. The Leeds document stated: 'All birth environments will share a philosophy of promoting normal birth.'
Devastating Consequences for Families
The human cost of this policy is embodied by families like Fiona Winser-Ramm and her husband Daniel. They believe the 'normal birth' ideology played a direct role in the death of their daughter, Aliona, in January 2020.
An inquest found that Aliona's death was caused by serious neglect and gross failures by midwives at Leeds. Ms Winser-Ramm endured a 72-hour labour during which her concerns were repeatedly dismissed.
'Essentially, the steer to continue with a vaginal birth at every opportunity was evident throughout my labour,' Ms Winser-Ramm told The Times. The inquest concluded that Aliona should have been delivered by caesarean section hours earlier than she was born, and identified a 'wait-and-see culture' at the trust.
By the Numbers: A Stark Statistical Picture
The data reveals a troubling correlation between the trust's low intervention rates and poor outcomes:
- The rate of caesarean sections at Leeds between 2012-13 and 2023-24 was 19 per cent, significantly lower than the national average of 24 per cent.
- The trust's stillbirth rate of 4.36 per 1,000 births is among the highest in England, compared to a national average of 3.25.
- Most shockingly, Leeds had a neonatal death rate of 5.6 deaths per 1,000 births in the most recent data – the worst of any trust in Britain, where the average is just 1.7.
Leeds is one of fourteen NHS trusts currently under investigation for maternity failures across England, a scandal that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described as a 'cause of national shame'.
Mr Streeting has announced an urgent independent inquiry into the maternity units at LTH, which include Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital. He stated, 'We have to give the families the honesty and accountability they deserve and end the normalisation of deaths of women and babies in maternity units.'
More than 150 families have now come forward with complaints about their maternity care at Leeds, demanding rigorous oversight, potentially from midwife Donna Ockenden, who is leading a major review in Nottingham.
