Midwives at Medway Maritime Hospital have helped more mums giving birth have a safer delivery following an award-winning project.

The maternity team was given the Johnson’s Award for Excellence in Maternity Care at the Royal College of Midwives awards yesterday.

The Stop Traumatic Oasis Morbidity Project (Stomp) has seen the number of women suffering third and fourth degree tears during child-birth fall from 5% to 1%. The national average is 5.9%.

Stomp is a prevention method which focuses on position, speed and coaching techniques during childbirth.

It has reduced the amount and severity of injury women can face but has also reduced the need for caesarean sections.

This has allowed mothers who have been previously injured, to give birth naturally and with confidence that it won’t happen again.

Watch: Lead consultant Maya Basu talks about the project

Dot Smith, head of midwifery and gynaecology said: “The team and I feel extremely honoured to be recognised by the Royal College of Midwives for such a prestigious award.

“I also feel unbelievably proud of our brilliant gynaecology team for all the hard work and dedication they have put into bringing rates of child birth injury far below the national average – a great achievement indeed.”

She started the project after investigating why women were suffering more severe tears than expected during labour.

It was discovered a few mums were delivering too quickly, resulting in almost 3% of women suffering third and fourth-degree tears, which damage muscles and can take two to three months to heal.

The new method of delivery also reduces the emotional and psychological impact that severe tearing can have on a woman’s independence, self-confidence and relationships with both her child and her partner.

Medway NHS Foundation Trust is the only trust in the south east to offer a full assessment of women who are carrying a child in order to determine how likely they are to have bowel issues after delivery and in later life.

The clinic has been offering the full assessment, both before and after childbirth, for two-and-a-half years and now sees around 20 women a month.

Lead consultant Maya Basu said: “It’s really good for us here in Medway, and for our women in Medway as well, that we are able to offer them this high-level type of assessment. The vast majority of our patients say they are reassured by the extra information we are able to give them.

“When you’ve just had a baby often there’s so much going on, it’s difficult to take in exactly what’s happened to you so I think women find it useful to come back here a few weeks later to talk about what’s happened and the implications for the future.”

Hospitals across the country are now asking the team for advice on how to implement the programme.