In a website notice the trust said the service was ‘not sustainable' due to ‘staff sickness absence and issues with rotas' which meant that homebirths were being cancelled at short notice.

The notice read: ‘We have suspended our current home birth service to avoid the situation where pregnant women were expecting NHS support for a homebirth and then being told at short notice that this could not be provided.'

A spokesperson for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘Due to capacity issues, we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend our home birth service. Our midwives are proud to support over 17,000 women to birth their  babies every year across our maternity services, of which around 50 are home births.  

‘We know that this decision will be disappointing for the women wishing to have birth at home with our support. We have spoken to all the women who were expecting to use the homebirth services so they can consider the options available to them including midwifery-led care through our maternity services, and we continue to support them fully.'