MIDWIVES from East Lancashire’s hospitals, who more than doubled the area’s home and water birth rate in just two years, have received a prestigious MPs’ award.

Representatives of the midwifery team at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust travelled to Westminster to collect their All-Party Parliamentary Group Maternity Service Award.

The team were awarded the “Normality of Childbirth” category at the annual awards after transforming the choices and opportunities available to expectant mums.

Louise Dunn, a Ribble Valley mother-of-three who is chairwoman of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust’s Maternity Services Liaison Committee, said she had personally benefited from the service’s development.

She said water birth training for just two midwives in 2006 had spread through the service and sparked a “phenomenal shift” in the ways births are managed. And despite staff shortages, the midwives have added extra “on-call” time to their rotas to ensure they can offer full support for women opting to have their babies at home. By the end of 2008, almost six per cent of East Lancashire mothers were opting for water births, and more than three per cent chose a home birth.

Head of midwifery for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Sheena Byrom travelled to London, with midwives and obstetrician Elizabeth Martindale, for the awards.

The reception was attended by over 150 politicians including Burnley MP Kitty Uusher, leading health professionals and user representatives from the maternity services.