Migrant baby boom takes toll on UK economy

London, Jan 30 (UNI) Maternity units in the UK are forced to turn expecting mothers away as they can not cope with the ever increasing demands of migrants.

Statistics reveal that the NHS was spending more than 350 million pounds annually to provide maternity services for foreign-born mothers.

Immigration has led to the birth rate increase by 200 million pounds in a decade's time. It has led to the closure of some units so that midwives could be moved to areas of urgent need.

According to reports, one baby in four was being delivered to a foreign-born mother with more than 11,000 babies born to a mother from India and Pakistan.

Notably, the number of babies born to British mothers has fallen by 44,000 a year since the mid-1990s, while the figure for babies born to foreign mothers has risen by 64,000. More than 77 per cent rise has been recorded pushing the overall birth-rate to its highest level for 26 years.

''The Department of Health has been taken by surprise. The demographic change, the sheer numbers, has in some areas increased very substantially without there being any forward planning really to allow for that,'' the Daily Mail quoted Philip Steer of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology as saying.

The NHS was working to ''build in'' the extra capacity needed.

''If you're going to provide responsible care for all the population then we will have to stop and think about what we can and can't afford,'' Dr Nalini Modha said.

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