The hospital denies the maternity unit is under pressure

The Dr Foster Good Birth Guide puts Nevill Hall among the 21 busiest maternity units across the UK.

The hospital is top in Wales for the number of births, delivering around 1,600 babies each year - or 1.1 babies per bed per day.

Ipswich in the east of England tops the list with 1.3 births, compared with a national average of 0.76 births per day for each hospital delivery bed.

The maternity unit at Nevill Hall hospital serves the industrial valleys of south Wales as well as the agricultural expanses of the Brecon Beacons National Park and the Wye Valley.

'No pressure'

In 2001, despite fierce opposition, Dyfed-Powys Health Authority decided to downgrade maternity services at the Brecon War Memorial Hospital, making mothers-to-be travel to Abergavenny instead.

A spokesman for Nevill Hall denied the service was under pressure as a result.

If the delivery beds at the hospital were all full, babies could be born in the first stage or admission room, he said.

He added that the unit appeared to be so busy because of the way the figures have been calculated.

Larger hospitals, like the Royal Gwent in nearby Newport, would deliver more babies, according to the spokesman.