PARENTS of newly-born twin girls have praised the ‘brilliant’ midwives at the Royal Bolton Hospital but expressed concern at how stretched services are.

Fiona Fowler faced a delay in being induced despite her pregnancy deemed to be high risk because of the high number of people accessing maternity services at the hospital’s Princess Anne unit.

Now the proud parents, who also have two other daughters, have called for investment into the maternity unit to fix the “system”.

Mrs Fowler had been told by doctors that they needed to induce labour on Thursday, September 9.

Failure to do so would run the risk of Mrs Fowler’s pregnancy going beyond 37 weeks which dramatically increases the risks associated, including still birth.

Mr Fowler, 40, said: “The date came round, the hospital phoned and we were in the M2 ward to be induced.

“The procedure was done and my wife started the process.

“The midwife on the ward told her she was third on the list to go down to the labour ward as her pregnancy was high risk.

“Two days later my wife was still on ward M2, not being examined and still third on the list.

“On the third day of still being on the ward still not being examined I complained.

“The head midwife came to see us as my wife was scared, upset and extremely anxious as to what was going on, we got told we were top of the list.”

Eventually the Fowlers were attended to and 34-year-old Mrs Fowler was relieved to give birth to two healthy baby girls on Tuesday, September 14.

The family are now back at their Bolton home with twins Hollie and Grace.

But they remain concerned about the delay they faced and are worried about how other expectant mothers will fare.

Mr Fowler said: “The midwives on the ward were absolutely brilliant, dealing with so much, it’s just the system that they’re dealing with, its crazy.”

He added: “So doing something about it wouldn’t just help the ladies who are coming in, it would help the midwives as well.”

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Royal Bolton, says that though some delays are unavoidable it is working to make sure babies are delivered safely.

A spokesman said: “Our aim is to provide the safest care for people in our maternity unit, and avoid any delays wherever possible.

“Unfortunately, due to the increased numbers of people accessing maternity services across the region at this time, some delays are unavoidable.

“When establishing priority for induction procedures, our consultant team assess the full clinical picture to ensure that those who need to be seen first, are.

“We apologise to any families that have been inconvenienced at this busy time.”