The relative of one affected patient said she believed a shortage of beds was a growing problem for the hospital, while a health campaigner warned the problem will only get worse as a lack of services in smaller hospitals pushes more patients into Wagga.

"They are basically using the day surgery as an overflow area. This week it was for maternity," the relative, who did not want to be named, said.

Murrumbidgee Local Health District's director of clinical operations Helen Cooper said that on Tuesday night, the maternity unit experienced a peak in births so three "well mothers and babies, who were due to go home Wednesday", stayed in the day surgery unit overnight.

"At all times, they were under the care of nursing staff and were discharged as planned," Ms Cooper said.

"At all times patient and staff safety is paramount to the hospital. As is standard practice, we continually monitors nurse and midwife staffing levels and if additional staff are required, they will be rostered on.

"Up until September 20, Wagga Base has experienced 890 births for the year, boosted by our most recent arrivals, which is 47 more births than the same period last year."

Tumut's Geoff Pritchard believes Wagga Base is being "incredibly stressed" by the number of patients being transferred from other towns.

"It doesn't just affect health, but also the growth of country towns. People are not going to come here if we don't have adequate health services," Dr Pritchard said.

Member for Wagga Joe McGirr echoed Dr Pritchard's concerns about health services in smaller towns and shared his own about the number of births likely at Wagga Base this year.

"The city is planning to grow, so that's also an issue," he said.