The birth rate in England and Wales has reached a 40-year-high, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The ONS recently revealed that there were 723,165 live births in 2010, which represents a 22 per cent increase in the last decade.

The baby boom has led to calls for more midwives to be employed in the UK. Furthermore, there is likely to be a rush of vacancies opening up for nursery nurse and family support jobs in the near future.    

Cathy Warwick, who is general secretary for the Royal College of Midwives, claimed that at least 4,700 new midwives would be required to handle the increasing birth rate.

In an interview with The Guardian, she called for the government to do more to make creating jobs for midwives easier.

She said: "The government has commited to protecting student midwife training places, but this is only for one year and does little good if there are not jobs for these midwives to go to.

"Without central direction it is simply to easy for hard-pressed NHS organisation to save money by cutting midwifery jobs."

The Daily Telegraph revealed the report shows that women are choosing to give birth later on and whilst the rate among over 40s also jumped by 3.9 per cent.