Capital and Coast District Health Board has scrapped its offer of $100 vouchers to women who leave hospital within six hours of giving birth as a survey warns of a midwifery crisis. The board made the offer this week to deal with a critical shortage of maternity beds expected next month - but quickly backtracked amid fierce criticism and descriptions of the plan as bribery. To make matters worse, a report issued yesterday suggested a nationwide shortage of about 200 midwives - with the Wellington region one of the worst affected. Capital and Coast, which is short of 15 midwives - almost a third of its maternity workforce - had asked midwives and obstetricians to discharge mothers having their second or subsequent child by “normal” delivery directly from the birthing suites during December and January. Board chief executive Margot Mains said the supermarket vouchers were “proposed with good intentions”, to offer practical support for the 48-hour period mothers would normally have been in hospital. “However, it is clear that some people see this as a potential form of bribery and I acknowledge this is not acceptable. “Yes, that is a U-turn, but sometimes a U-turn is justified and this is one of those occasions.”No woman or child would be discharged unless it was clinically safe to do so, she said. Read more…