2012 isn’t simply the year of the Olympics however, but moreover the highest baby boom during the last forty years.

It is estimated that around 700,000 babies will be given birth to this year, which is more than in any year since 1971.  The one problem being that the NHS has a big midwife shortage of around 5000 midwives. A quarter of midwifery departments said their budgets have been cut in the last twelve months.

Cathy Warwick, the chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives said: “The baby boom is restarting with renewed vigour.  We are already at birth numbers that haven’t been seen for a couple of generations.  The demand this is placing on the NHS is enormous … We need all the midwives we can get.  We’re training midwives, but we’re not recruiting them”.

A third of newly qualified midwives have said they are having trouble finding work.