The future of a midwife-led birthing unit in Melton should come under scrutiny, according to independent experts.
They said services at the St Mary's Birthing Unit should be reviewed due to the low number of births – about 250 year – and the distance to the nearest acute hospital.
It is one of nearly 50 recommendations from an independent obstetrician and midwife who carried out a review of maternity services at Leicester's hospitals for the three local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) responsible for providing local health services.
They have also recommended that plans for all maternity services to be based at one site should be kept on the table.
Dr Dave Briggs, the accountable officer for the East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG which covers the Melton area, said: "We know that the women who use the birthing unit really value it.
"Our next steps are to explore the issues raised and no changes will be considered until we have done this."
The review found good standards of care and safe services. However, it added that services can become over-stretched at times and the number of midwives, doctors, support staff and beds should be looked at.
Dr Avi Prasad, co-chairman of the Leicester City CCG and chairman of the group set up to oversee the review, said: "We wanted a review to make sure the population we serve is getting a good standard of care and to see what support is needed.
"We are pleased with the overall findings but know there is still a lot more to do. We will be working with the hospitals to make improvements."
However, he has ruled out a new single maternity hospital in the "foreseeable future."
A new maternity hospital was included in the multi-million pound Pathway scheme to transform Leicester's hospitals, which collapsed in 2007.
The idea of a new unit was scrapped in 2010 when the then primary care trusts said it was too expensive.
Dr Prasad said: "The financial challenges have not changed and the money simply doesn't exist for us to invest in a new maternity hospital. It is a long-term solution that won't be delivered in the foreseeable future, but we've agreed to keep it on the agenda."
He said extra money which has been used on more midwives and increasing the number of maternity and delivery rooms "has had a positive impact."
Ian Scudamore, a consultant obstetrician and director of women's and children's services at Leicester's hospitals, said: "The report says that we deliver safe, compassionate care, and that our doctors and midwives are enthusiastic, passionate and hard-working.
"It emphasises that mums praised our service with 84 per cent using the service in the past year rating their care as excellent or good.
"The report also recognised that the current service now has 11,000 births a year but was designed for less than 9,000 and so it is not surprising that there can be issues with capacity."
