Midwives undercover.

A Panorama investigator, Hayley, goes undercover in NHS Maternity Wards. First of all she visits St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, where the staff are extremely stretched and women often get poor treatment. We hear of a woman who had her labour induced but was moved to a post-natal ward with no proper pain relief as there were no beds, and another woman who had her caesarian section operation postponed due to lack of operating theatres - one of her twins died and the other was born severely brain-damaged. This is not unusual to Manchester, midwives and maternity departments across the country are unhappy with the lack of resources the NHS provides for maternity wards and staff. Figures show that despite Britain's increasing birth-rate, we are 3000 midwives short and last year the NHS paid out over £260 000 000 in medical negligence claims for maternity cases alone. Hayley then visits Barnet Hospital in London where we see a woman in strong labour left in the corridor while staff struggle to find her a bed. And we hear the harrowing story of Katy and Ben who lost their baby Ella due to over-crowding at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and the story of little Abbie who was unnecessarily born with severe brain damage and died during the making of the programme.