NEWLY-qualified midwives have said East Lancashire's revised birthing model would give mums the best possible births.

Rachel Harries, 24, and Jessica Sandford, 23, will be helping mums through labour at the new birth centres in Blackburn, Burnley and Rossendale.

The first midwife-led centre opened at Park Lee Road, Blackburn, last month.

From December, women with uncomplicated pregnancies will be able to choose to have their babies at their local birth centre, at home, or in a unit within the £32m Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre at Burnley General Hospital.

Jessica will be going full-circle, as she was one of the last babies born at the midwife-led Whalley Maternity Home, which closed in the late 1980s.

The midwife, who qualified a year ago, said: “Mum has always said what an amazing experience it was, and how the birth centre environment had such a positive impact on my birth compared with that of my older brother’s in hospital.

“We have really noticed the difference it makes when women are in comfortable, relaxed surroundings.

“The births tend to be quicker, and they can be confident that they are safe because of all the ante-natal checks that have been done."

Wherever possible, the same midwife will support a mother throughout her pregnancy and birth, wherever she chooses to have her baby.

Rachel, who qualified two years ago, said: “I went to one home birth in the middle of the night, and the woman gave birth to her baby in the living room, while her other children were asleep upstairs.

“It was lovely, especially when you contrast that with hospital births late at night, when women might have struggled to get to the hospital and feel really vulnerable by the time they reach the delivery suite.

”Neither of us can wait to go and work in the new birth centres.

“It will be a brilliant new beginning for mums and midwives alike.”