Maternity services could struggle to keep running if Covid infection rates carry on climbing as restrictions ease, health professionals have warned.

       The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which together represent the majority of NHS maternity staff, said planned home births were already being cancelled in some areas due to ambulance shortages.

       Leah Deutsch, a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, told The Independent some women were not able to have home births during the two previous waves of the pandemic.