Immigrant pregnancies

The BBC has been told the influx of eastern Europeans to the UK has led to a massive rise in pregnancies and abortion requests in some areas.

Health professionals warn that some antenatal services are stretched to breaking point.

Doctors say the new arrivals are largely young, fit and fertile: the number of pregnant women has doubled; one in four women asking for an abortion is eastern European.

In one GP practice in Luton in Bedfordshire, 400 new patients register every month - and 80% are eastern European.

Dr Nina Pearson specialises in women's health at the Lea Vale Medical Group, near Luton town centre.

She said services for pregnant women were stretched to the limit.

"The number of cases that we have at the moment is more or less double what we would expect for our practice population.

"It's having an enormous impact on the workload for the midwives - and then of course there's the post natal work, and the baby checks, babies that are needing immunisations.

"It's an area of work that we are struggling to keep up with at the moment."

It was reported earlier this month that there is a national shortage of midwives and that as a consequence deaths of mothers have increased by one fifth to 391 while 17,000 women have experienced physical harm. How many lives would be saved if these eastern Europeans were made to give birth in their own countries?