To ask the Minister of Health, given the rising average age profile for mothers, what adaptation is being made to the number of midwives in training.

The age profile of women using maternity services has steadily risen over the last decade. Pregnancy for women who are aged 35 or older is considered a risk factor for adverse maternal and or perinatal outcomes such as preterm labour, chromosomal abnormalities, and labour complications.

A well-established workforce analysis tool is used across the HSC to plan the optimum student numbers that are required to maintain and develop a midwifery workforce that can respond to the changing needs of women.

My Department currently spends approximately £4.4m per annum on pre-registration training for midwives at Queen’s University Belfast. An all-time high annual intake of 115 training places was achieved in 2022/23. I will continue to make the case for additional investment to develop our future workforce, in the context of what I expect to be a very challenging budget in 2024/25.