Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has been challenged to put her money where her mouth is over the county's maternity service.

Unveiling Labour's vision for the future of maternity services in England, Mrs Hewitt promised women a 'gold standard' in care by 2009.

As well as 1,000 more midwives, she said all women will have a choice of home, midwife unit, or consultant-led birth. There will also be better pre- and post- natal care, and more senior cover on some delivery suites.

But Julia Horsnell, the chairman of the Oxford Radcliffe Trust's Maternity Services Liaison Committee, said Mrs Hewitt needed to back up her plans with hard cash.

She said: "Major investment is needed to resolve the problems of this 'cinderella service'.

"I'm delighted that the whole aspect of maternity is to be reviewed. And Mrs Hewitt's report mirrors the penny pinching that has been going on in our Trust, as well as others.

"But what she is promising will be impossible unless serious money is put in. At the moment we don't even have half a midwife spare here in Oxfordshire.

"But even if we could get 10,000 new midwives, it would be pointless if we didn't have the money to employ them."

She added: "In terms of women having more choice, I think the majority do get their first choice here in Oxfordshire, whether it be a home birth, in a midwife-led unit or in hospital. But I also think the majority of those women do not get as much quality time with their midwife as that midwife would like to give them.

"Specialist midwife-led units, are a new thing the trust is pursuing and there are already units in Wallingford, Chipping Norton and Banbury."

Gill Walton, the trust's head of midwifery, said many of Mrs Hewitt's plans were already in place in Oxfordshire, but welcomed moves to improve the support available to women.

She said: "This is good news and supports a lot of what we are already doing.

"But I see this report as not just about midwives, but also about targeting support at people who need it.

"Midwives must supervise a birth by law, but maternity support workers also have a very important role to play in freeing up the midwife to do what she needs to do."