There was a culture of “normal birth at almost any cost” at a hospital trust being investigated over what could be the biggest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS.

Midwife Donna Ockenden, who last week published an independent report on failings at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH), told MPs she had spoken to “hundreds of women who said they felt pressure to have a natural birth”.

There were a number of cases, she added, where “had a baby been born by caesarean sections the outcome may well have been better and almost certainly would have been safer”.

Ms Ockenden, an independent midwife commissioned to review cases in 2017, said her final report into maternity care at the trust will examine why the push for natural birth existed there.

Her interim findings highlighted a caesarean section rate consistently 8-12% below the England average.

The culture to drive down surgical intervention “came from obstetricians and from midwives”, said Ms Ockenden, adding: “It wasn’t one profession battling another.”

Ms Ockenden is examining 1,862 cases where babies or mothers died unnecessarily, or were caused unnecessary harm by maternity care at the trust.

Most of the cases happened between 2000 and 2019.

She told the Health and Social Care Select Committee that she believed the main reason the scandal went on for so long is a failure of the trust to listen to families.

“There was a culture of ‘this is your fault’ to the mother. ‘If you hadn’t done X your baby would have lived’,” she told MPs.

Sky News has been shown a letter that has been sent to all trusts in England, in which Ms Ockenden outlines the immediate actions required in order to improve safety of maternity services.

Ms Ockenden also told MPs she “will leave no stone unturned” when examining the role of regulators, who failed to prevent poor care over many years in Shropshire.

Rhiannon Davies’s daughter Kate died in 2009, six hours after she was born – after doctors and midwives failed to recognise she was seriously ill.

Ms Davies told Sky News: “There absolutely no commitment within this trust to learn from serious incidents for the prevention of future harm, when learning could occur as a result of a review, all too often the real issues weren’t identified or acted upon.

“That is catastrophic and appalling.

“The burden of ensuring learning has therefore always fallen to families like mine.”

“Even when those harmed families managed to find a space inside their grief or trauma to raise concerns, all too often those concerns fell on deaf ears allowing further avoidable harm to happen.

“Those who enabled that situation to pervade have blood on their hands.

“A second critical issue that Donna Ockenden explored was the pressure women are put under at the trust to have a so-called normal birth. She clearly stated that this was a multi-professional issue. Obstetricians and midwives are pushing this harmful agenda equally hard. It cost lives, it caused harm. How can we have any assurance that it is not still happening today?

“There is no such thing as a normal birth – every birth experience is different.

“The only agenda that should ever be pursued in maternity is safe birth. Safe for the mother, safe for the baby. And safety must be at the heart of every conversation had, every decision made, every single day across the entire maternity team.”

Following publication of the Ockenden report on Thursday, Louise Barnett, chief executive at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “I would like to thank Donna Ockenden for this report but more importantly the families for coming forward.

“As the chief executive now and on behalf of the whole trust, I want to say how very sorry we are for the pain and distress that has been caused to mothers and their families due to poor maternity care at our trust.

“We commit to implementing all of the actions in this report and I can assure the women and families who use our service that if they raise any concerns about their care they will be listened to and action will be taken.”

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