MORE needs to be done to help poorer women through pregnancy, experts have said after new research found they have a worse experience than better-off mothers-to-be.

Researchers from Oxford University found the most deprived women were 60 per cent less likely to have received any ante natal care when compared to the richest women.

These poorer women were also more likely to report they were not treated respectfully by health workers or spoken to in a way that they could understand during ante natal care and labour.

Louise Silverton, director for midwifery for the Royal College of Midwives, said: "The challenge is that this group of women are the same women who do not have a voice, unlike a lot of women we see in our clinics. This group ask for little and get little, often because they do not know what services are available.

"Midwives around the country have shown that with continuity of care, kindness and empathy, the health outcomes for socially disadvantaged women dramatically improve.

"These women should have more access to a midwife, but this is not possible because of stretched NHS resources and the pressure on their time. We need more midwives to address these challenges and provide continuity of care."

The study, based on a survey of more than 5,300 people who had given birth in England, is published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics And Gynaecology.