Health Reporter Emma Brady is with the West Midlands charity Baby Lifeline in Kuwait, where it is staging its first international conference.

Yesterday delegates visited the Al Sabah Maternity Hospital where 15,000 babies are born each year...

Along the marble hallway is a sumptious office, with leather sofas, a large mahogany desk and a distinct air of importance.

This is the office of the man who runs Al Sabah Maternity Hospital, Dr Mansour Sarkhow, and he is proud of the staff's achievements here.

The hospital, in west Shuwaikh, is the largest facility of its kind in Kuwait. Held up as a beacon of good practice, this is what Iraqi medics attending Baby Lifeline's first international conference in Fahaheel, Kuwait, hope one day to achieve.

Built in 1968, it forms part of the Al Sabah Hospital's sprawling compound of specialist hospitals, many of which require refurbishment.

Dr Sarkhow, the maternity hospital's director, said: "This is the biggest maternity hospital in Kuwait, we take referrals from all over the country from those with congenital defects to premature births.

"Every day there are 50 babies born here, it is a really busy hospital but it offers the best care and facilities in Kuwait."

Until last week, women could only use gas and air during labour but now nurses can offer epidurals for pain relief - which have long been available in British hospitals. Matron Mastora Alanzi said it meant patients could now benefit from 'labour without pain'.

But despite the gleam of the newly refurbished wards, Matron Alanzi explained that funding was not a straightforward issue.

"A lot of the hospital has been refurbished, mainly funded by some of the wealthy families who have paid for a floor or wards to be upgraded," she said.

"We do get money from the Ministry of Health but it is not that much, I suppose we should get more really.

"The special care baby unit is one example. It cost four million Kuwaiti dinar (£8 million), and most that was privately funded."

The refurbishment of Ward 19 was funded in this way, giving new mothers small private rooms and more nursery cots for their babies.

But most of the staff nurses on this post-natal ward are from Kerala, in India, as recruiting local nurses is very difficult.

Also patient care, which is at the heart of the health service, is in danger of being compromised as the hospital struggles to retain its staff.

There are meant to be 667 doctors, midwives and nurses running the hospital but only 571 are currently employed.

Matron Alanzi added: "A 28-bed ward should be staffed by at 11 or 12 nurses, but in reality it can be just five or six running the ward - in fact most of the wards are like this.

"But we do the best we can for our patients."

The charity's conference, which ends tomorrow, is helping Iraqi and Kuwaiti delegates improve essential skills in obstetric and gynaecological emergencies.

Diane Wilton, patron of the British Ladies Society, which helped fund the event, said that although Al Sabah is hailed as the best in Kuwait, patient care and facilities in most hospitals here were "well below par".

She said: "The doctors and surgeons here are very intelligent, well qualified and experts in their own fields, but it's the aftercare that's the problem.

"Many of the nurses are foreign nationals, mainly from India, and although there is a national training programme nursing care in Kuwait is well below par.

"However this hospital is great example of what can be achieved by the Iraqis, now they are free to develop their skills."