“POOLE Hospital is a safe place to have your baby.” That’s the pledge from maternity chiefs as rising births outstripping recruitment are leaving too few midwives to mothers.

Some 37.5 mums give birth for each midwife in Poole Maternity Unit annually. Current Safer Childbirth guidance recommends a midwife to birth ratio of 1 to 28.

Interim head of midwifery Helen Williams said this was a ‘gold standard’ achieved by few maternity units, but admitted: “Our midwife to women ratio is higher than we’d like it to be.”

It results from an “unprecedented and difficult to predict” rise in births – up five per cent from last year to this alone – combined with a nationwide shortage of experienced midwives making recruitment difficult, added Mrs Williams.

The revelation comes on the back of a highly critical letter from a member of staff which paints a picture of midwives under pressure and a unit “more often than not filled to capacity”.

The anonymous writer adds: “Women and their families are receiving the highest level of care we can possibly provide with the staff and facilities we have available, but this is not acceptable.”

Hospital chiefs said improvements were already under way with more recruitment and a major restructure aimed at freeing up midwives to devote themselves to mums and babies.

The number of higher banded midwives has been cut, with six dropping down a level from supervisory work to hands-on care.

An additional 23 fulltime posts are being created, including six entry level midwives and 2.5 experienced midwives moving from bank working onto contracts.

Theatre and recovery practitioners, nurses and care assistants will also be employed to take on some roles currently performed by midwives, including admin, theatre scrub work, teaching mothers how to breastfeed and looking after women in recovery.

“It’s about working smarter. It’s about midwives only doing what only midwives can do,” added Mrs Williams.

Some £750,000 will be invested in equipment and improvements to theatres in the unit before the end of the financial year.

Mrs Williams sought to reassure women, pointing out that the proportion of births resulting in maternal and infant deaths at Poole was lower than the national average on both counts. She added: “I think that demonstrates the outcomes are very good and Poole is a safe place to have your baby.”

The unit goes through bench marking in November – which could provide a case for further recruitment.