Phone ‘Direct to Midwife’

Greater Manchester NHS has launched a new ‘Direct to Midwife’ campaign to allow mums-to-be to know about their choices and enable their pregnancy care to be started sooner.

Each day 100 Greater Manchester women find out they are pregnant, so now they are being encouraged to go direct to a midwife.

To support women to get in contact with their local midwives, a Greater Manchester-wide telephone service has been set up on 0800 121 4400. Women contacting this number will be put through to their local midwifery service.

The ‘Direct to Midwife’ campaign supports national maternity policy that says women should have the choice of how to access maternity care, either via their local midwifery service or with their GP.

It is understood that direct contact with midwives can result in earlier access to health information and screening that can help the health of both mum and baby.

Mary Rooney, the Royal College of Midwives’ Regional Officer for the North West, said: “The Royal College of Midwives welcomes any initiative that helps women access a midwife and puts them on course for a healthy pregnancy with early advice and support.”