'Largest ever increase' in maternity staff with 3,000 more training places offered
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Geraint Vincent
More than 3,000 training course places will be created over the next four years in the "largest ever" investment in midwifery training, as part of plans to meet NHS staffing demands.
In new plans released by the Department of Health and Social Care, expectant mothers will also be treated by the same midwives throughout their pregnancy in a bid to reduce miscarriages and stillbirths.
Appearing on ITV's Peston On Sunday, Jeremy Hunt said that this "continuity of carer" initiative could save the lives of 700 babies each year, and prevent a further 500 being born with brain damage.
"One of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to lose a child," Mr Hunt told Robert Peston.
He continued that the Government's new plans were designed to make pregnancy and maternity services safer, and to make expectant mothers more relaxed by giving them the same team throughout.
Mr Hunt's announcement, which is due to be officially made on Tuesday, comes after the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) warned of "chronic shortages in maternity services".
The Health Secretary is expected to say: "There are few moments in life that matter more than the birth of a child, so the next step in my mission to transform safety standards is a drive to give mums dedicated midwives, who can get to know them personally and oversee their whole journey from pregnancy to labour to new parent."
The changes to maternity services in England will start with a target of one-in-five women benefiting from having the same midwife throughout their pregnancy by March 2019, with the majority of women experiencing the same by 2021.
According to the Government, women who use the "continuity of carer" model are 19% less likely to miscarry, 16% less likely to lose their baby and 24% less likely to give birth prematurely.
Mr Hunt will say: "The statistics are clear that having a dedicated team of midwives who know you and understand your story can transform results for mothers and babies - reducing stillbirths, miscarriages and neonatal deaths, and the agony that comes with these tragedies.
"This profound change will be backed up by the largest ever investment in midwifery training, with a 25% expansion in the number of training places, as well as an incredibly well deserved pay rise for current midwives."
Other measures Mr Hunt is expected to announce include a more formal definition for maternity support workers, whose roles and job titles currently vary widely and do not adhere to set standards.
The Government will also work with organisations including the RCM to develop new training routes into midwifery.
The announcements come after years of NHS pay restraint were ended with a rise of between 6.5% and 29% over three years, which could help make the profession more attractive.
The pay rise announcements mean that a newly qualified band-five midwife will start on a salary of £24,907 by 2020/21 - a 12.6% rise from the current starting salary of £21, 692.
Some 650 more midwives will enter training next year, with planned increases of 1,000 in subsequent years.
RCM chief executive and general secretary Gill Walton said: "This is a very long overdue acknowledgement by the Government that England's maternity services need more midwives.
"The RCM has been campaigning to get successive governments to eradicate themidwife shortage for well over a decade.
"This is recognition that this Government have been listening to us...
"Whilst we welcome the commitment to continuity of care, it is ambitious.
"The additional midwives who start training next year won't be qualified midwives working in our maternity services until 2022.
"That will make a difference and it will begin to have an impact on the workload of midwives, but it will not transform maternity services right now.
"It will take seven or eight years before all of the new midwives announced today will be actually working in our maternity services."