MPs boost midwives role but warn on threat to neonatal care.

Midwives received a boost for their profession with the house of commons' second health committee report on maternity services. If MPs get their way midwives will hold their own caseloads, recommend whether pregnant women should be seen by an obstetrician, and play a greater part in referring women to hospital. Women should be seen by fewer professionals with greater continuity of care, says the report. A midwife known to the family should be the key worker supervising labour--a role eroded over the years with the shift away from home births and small maternity units to larger institutions and a doctor-dominated system. But MPs also issued a stern warning about the threat the NHS changes present to effective neonatal care of at risk babies.