Home births to resume after safety concerns

A midwifery-led centre and home birth services are set to be reinstated later this year in a bid to give expectant mothers more choice.

The Aveta Birth Centre at Cheltenham General Hospital in Gloucestershire has been closed since 2022 due to staff shortages and safety concerns.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust also suspended home births in November 2025.

Chief nurse Matt Holdaway said the trust was "keen to give the choice back to women in Gloucestershire" but warned this could require changes to staffing elsewhere in the county, and some campaigners fear this could create "substandard" care.

The BBC understands this could include staffing the maternity unit at Stroud District Hospital on an on-call basis overnight, rather than round-the-clock care.

On-call midwives could potentially be deployed to home births or to the hospital.

The trust said this would enable greater flexibility and safer deliveries, as midwives would work shorter shifts and stay more alert.

Births requiring obstetric interventions would still be transferred to Gloucester Royal Hospital under this model.

But some campaigners fear women expected to have a straightforward delivery may be sent straight to Gloucester because Stroud would not be staffed in time.

Local MP Simon Opher said he feared the birthing service at Stroud risked becoming little more than a "pop-up" unit available on an ad-hoc basis.

His concerns were echoed by campaigner Catherine Forrester from the Stroud Motherhood Collective, who said the proposals "risk spreading substandard provision across the county".

"Attempts to create 'equality' of provision by reducing services across Gloucestershire are unacceptable," she said.

Emma Hetherington from the Gloucestershire Maternity Action Group added: "We are standing up to protect genuine choice and upholding women's legal rights.

"The NHS Constitution clearly states that you have the right to choose where you receive maternity care and where you give birth - but under these proposals, that right risks becoming meaningless in practice.

"A 'choice' that may not be available when labour begins is not a real choice."

A recent petition signed by 3,600 people urged local health authorities to refrain from implementing reduced overnight hours at Stroud Maternity Unit.

It stated increased demand on midwifery teams to cover a broader area would mean potentially longer waiting times and increased risk of complications.

Chloe Turner, leader of Stroud District Council, said the discussion was ultimately about "women's choices and their bodies". She claimed the model the trust had been working on would create a "bit of a lottery".

"I understand the pressures on the NHS obviously, but people want clarity," she said.

"It's not fair on women to only know what choices are available to them when they actually go into labour," she added.

The trust said it had been working to "safely reinstate the home birth service" in Gloucestershire over the past six months and it was confident the model would be flexible enough to provide midwives to support women in their choice of birth.

"We recognise the temporary changes to home birth were deeply frustrating," a spokesperson said.

"We want to thank women, birthing people and our maternity staff for their continued patience and understanding so that maternity services can reopen safely for everyone, no matter where they live in Gloucestershire," they added.

It hopes to reopen the Aveta Birth Centre and reinstate home births by autumn.

The BBC understands any changes to existing staffing models would require a formal consultation - which has not yet happened.

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