A NEW team of nurses – dubbed “cut-price midwives” by critics – are about to start work in Scotland’s maternity wards in a controversial bid to reduce staffing shortages.

The newly trained maternity care assistants will support midwives and new mothers in an attempt to address allegations of a “conveyor belt” culture in childbirth.

The first of the new workers – former auxiliaries with extra training in childbirth and childcare – will take blood samples and monitor vital signs during labour, such as blood pressure, temperature and pulse. They will help new mothers with breastfeeding, nappy changing and bathing babies.

Twenty staff are due to begin work immediately, 40 will be employed by the end of the year, and health bosses hope to have as many as three in every maternity unit in the country. Read more