A mpther-of-two had to pay £2,000 to give birth because a short-staffed hospital could not provide a midwife.

Hannah Quinn had meticulously planned every detail of the birth of her second child at home in Trafalgar Road, Portslade, and had a birthing pool ready for the big day.

However, when Mrs Quinn went into labour the Royal Sussex County Hospital refused to send a midwife, leaving the family with a stressful search for a private midwife, which cost £2,000.

The family claims they gave the hospital plenty of notice they were having a home birth and said they received assurances a midwife would be available.

Mrs Quinn said: "When the big day arrived we were left without any help at all and had this big panic to find someone else.

"The Brighton area is known as a place where home births are popular but I feel I should warn people this sort of thing can happen.

"I would have thought there would be more midwives available."

Mrs Quinn, who has a two-year-old daughter, Mia, ended up having a difficult labour as baby Ryan William weighed 12lb.

After 23 hours she gave birth into a pool at 12.30am.

She said: "I think he'll be a bit of a rugby player like his father."

About one in 16 births in Brighton are carried out at home - the highest in the country and twice the national average - which hospital staff admit can lead to problems.

A spokesman for the Royal Sussex County Hospital said staff sickness, periods of emergency at the hospital plus a national shortage of midwives, meant mothers giving birth at home in Brighton were sometimes left to fend for themselves.

Mrs Quinn said: "I went into labour early in the morning and I rang the hospital to tell them what was happening.

"It was only later that they said they couldn't get a midwife to me because they were short staffed.

"Their attitude was 'you're going to have to work this out yourself'.

"My husband and I just looked at each other and didn't really know what to do.

"Thankfully we rang Worthing Hospital who suggested the private midwife and then rang around some relatives who were happy to loan us the money to pay for her.

"But if they hadn't we could have had big problems."

The National Childbirth Trust said it was possibly the "open mindedness" of Brighton and Hove mothers which led to the city topping home birth statistics.

A spokesman said: "We still believe there is a wide disparity in the quality and amount of care between areas for women giving birth at home."

Royal Sussex County Hospital spokeswoman Caroline Lord said: "I understand it is frustrating for mothers but unfortunately we can never guarantee midwives will be available.

"Like most organisations we have to use our resources in the best possible way. Sometimes, when there is staff sickness or a lot of emergencies in the hospital, it does make resources scarce."

Figures show home births in Brighton are falling but it still has the highest number in the country.

Latest figures show 6.4 per cent of Brighton mothers gave birth at home in 2004, down from 8.8 per cent in 2002.