Almost a quarter of women were unable to get help they needed from NHS staff while giving birth, a survey has revealed.
The Care Quality Commission's maternity survey shows that 23% of women were either "sometimes" able to get prompt care - or not at all - while in labour last year. This was up from 19% in 2019.
Some women did not get the postnatal care they wanted, with 34% of respondents wishing they could speak to or see a midwife more than they did, compared to 25% in 2019.
The watchdog also found 55% of women who needed it said that in the six weeks after the birth of their baby, they ‘definitely’ received help and advice from a midwife or health visitor about feeding their baby, down from 62% in 2019.
It comes after midwifery leaders warned that worsening staffing shortages were hitting morale.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) called on the Government last week to fix workforce issues, as a survey of its members last year found over half (57%) of those considering leaving planned to go within the next year.
Shadow Primary Care Minister Feryal Clark said: "Women giving birth shouldn’t have to worry about whether they will be well looked after, safe and comfortable.
"After a decade of Conservative mismanagement, the NHS went into the pandemic with 17,000 fewer beds than in 2010 and now it is losing more midwives than it is recruiting.
"It’s not just that the Tories didn’t fix the roof when the sun was shining, they dismantled the roof and removed the floorboards."
The watchdog surveyed more than 23,000 women who gave birth in English hospitals during February 2021 as the country faced its third national lockdown.
The CQC said results had declined in some areas, but added "despite the pressures of the pandemic, the majority of women continued to report positive experiences of maternity care."
The CQC recently found that midwives at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are worried about being “too exhausted to keep patients safe,” and that the trust does not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “All women should feel supported during childbirth and receive the best quality maternity care.
“We want the NHS to be the safest place in the world to give birth, which is why we’re aiming to hire 1,200 more midwives with a £95 million recruitment drive.
“More widely, we are driving women’s health to the top of the agenda through our upcoming Women’s Health Strategy and our dedicated Maternity Disparities Taskforce is examining how the government can continue to improve maternity care.”
