‘Considerable strain’ for maternity services as Unicef predicts 643,000 babies to be born in UK in nine months since pandemic declared

‘We need to consider the needs of babies and their families and protect and support the services that work with them,’ says Unicef official

A nurse gives a baby some medicine at a UK medical centre. Globally, 116 million births are expected in the nine months since the pandemic was declared (Getty)

Maternity services in the UK are facing “considerable strain”, with the 643,000 babies due to be born in the nine months following the start of the coronavirus crisis set to suffer “harsh realities” as a result of the pandemic, a United Nations agency has warned.

Unicef, the UN body which provides humanitarian aid to children around the world, said an estimated 116 million babies will be born across the globe in the 40 weeks after Covid-19 was announced a pandemic on 11 March.

The agency raised concerns the babies and mothers would have to cope with health systems and medical supply chains around the world which are acutely struggling under the pressure of the coronavirus emergency.

It comes after The Independent reported pregnancy services in the UK were finding it difficult to manage with the coronavirus outbreak, with some maternity units 30 or 40 per cent down on staff and substantial numbers of birth centres being turned into Covid-19 units.

Home births are also being cancelled due to maternity units having staff off sick or self-isolating – with frontline service providers warning the secondary impact of the coronavirus emergency could put pregnant women’s health at risk.

Unicef has now warned that new mothers and newborns across the world will have to cope with lockdowns and curfews, health centres being deluged with the Covid-19 crisis, supply and equipment shortages, and a dearth of properly trained birth attendants due to midwives and other medical staff being relocated to help fight coronavirus.

The organisation argues Covid-19 chaos places millions of pregnant mothers and their babies around the world at substantial risk.

Anna Kettley, director of programmes at Unicef UK, said: “In the UK, our maternity services are coping as well as they can – but are also under considerable strain. This is a worrying time for everyone, especially so for pregnant women and new parents who can find having a baby isolating at the best of times.

“During this pandemic, we need to consider the needs of babies and their families and protect and support the services that work with them. Maternity and health services need clear guidance on how they can swiftly and safely return to offering high-quality face-to-face support to new and expecting mums.

“This includes how additional support can be put in place to mitigate the impacts of social distancing, particularly on the most vulnerable families, such as more personal protective equipment for midwives and health visitors, increased testing, and technology to support remote visits.”

The prediction of 643,000 babies born in the UK in nine months represents a noticeable spike in the UK birth rate – in 2018, 731,210 babies were born across the whole year.

The highest predicted numbers of births in the nine-month period of the Covid-19 emergency is claimed by India, where 20.1 million babies are expected to be born, followed by 13.5 million in China, 6.4 million in Nigeria, 5 million in Pakistan and 4 million in Indonesia.

While the Unicef forecast for births in 2020 already shows the rate is likely to increase as a result of the pandemic, the actual number of births during this period could be greater; a recent report by the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) predicted there will be an extra seven million unintended pregnancies if coronavirus disruption carries on for six months.

An estimated 2.8 million pregnant women and newborns die every year – with one dying every 11 seconds due to factors which were generally preventable – prior to the Covid-19 crisis, but Unicef argues this problem could be exacerbated by the pandemic.

Commenting on the new research, Maria Booker, of Birthrights, a UK maternity care charity, said: “Babies do not stop being born in a pandemic and pregnant women have the right to a safe and positive birth regardless of coronavirus. That’s why it is essential that the government protects the resources available to maternity services during this period.”

The chief medical officer in the UK has said all women expecting babies are in a vulnerable group and the NHS states pregnant women could be at higher risk from coronavirus and should only be leaving home for very limited reasons.

Pregnancy support helplines are experiencing a massive spike in distressed pregnant women asking for urgent help – with Birthrights finding enquiries to its advice line in March were up by 464 per cent in comparison to March last year.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives have told women there is no evidence to suggest pregnant women are at greater risk from coronavirus.

“[This self-isolation for 12 weeks] is a precautionary measure to reduce the theoretical risk to the baby’s growth and risk of preterm if the mother becomes unwell,” the organisations said.