Home birth service reintroduced at Northampton and Kettering Hospitals following three-day pause

Home birth services at both of Northamptonshire's general hospitals are available again after they were put on hold for three days.

On Monday this week (January 11), Northampton and Kettering General announced they were unable to send midwifery teams into the community for expecting mothers.

The announcement stated both hospitals were facing "increased demand for services" under the pressures of Covid and the winter months.

But an update released this morning (January 14) has confirmed that the home both services at both Northampton and Kettering General are available again.

The statement reads: "Following a review today and after communication with our local healthcare providers we are pleased to inform you that both KGH and NGH are in a position to support the reintroduction of their Home Birth services.

"We aim to maintain this service to support women’s choice, but due to the ever changing pressures we will be reviewing this regularly. Anyone who has been affected by the service changes will be contacted with an update."

It comes after the two hospitals announced on Tuesday that they were dealing with 401 Covid-positive patients, amounting to 36 per cent of the 1,100 beds.

In an emotional plea, KGH chief executive Eileen Doyle said in a statement: "If you're a non-believer of Covid — although I'm not sure how anyone can be — it's really important that we all have a responsibility to try and help the NHS maintain that capacity for those who need it.

"Your mum, dad, your nan, might have a stroke, might have a heart attack.

"All of these dreadful things happen and we have to maintain enough capacity in every acute hospital to be able to deal with those life-threatening emergencies.

"For those who perhaps think: 'I've got away this far, I'm not going to get Covid, I'll be fine, I'll have the vaccine in a little while', you may not get Covid, but you may spin off the road."