Hundreds of expectant mums will lose specialist home-birth care if laws forcing self-employed midwives out of work go ahead.
The chief nursing officer has sent a letter to England's 200self-employed midwives, warning them laws are to be introduced to makeit illegal for them to practice without professional indemnityinsurance. Independent midwives have been forced to practise withoutcover after the Royal College of Midwives withdrew its insurance in1994.
These nurses specialise in home births and procedures that the NHS sayswomen should have in hospital, for example helping mothers to have anormal delivery for a breech baby.
The Independent Midwifery Association, with the support of the NationalChildbirth Trust, is launching a campaign to secure insurance or dropproposed laws.
