Midwives terrified to go to work call for dramatic reform

Health care professionals and supporters who gathered at the March for Midwives campaign at Poole Park - and in towns and cities across much of the UK earlier this month - are raising concerns about staffing levels, working conditions and the state of the service.

Doula and organiser of the March with Midwives in Poole, Leila de la Mare, said: “The turn out was really good, there was a mixture of parents, midwives, doulas and other birth workers so it was a really positive event.”

March with Midwives in Poole. Credit Claire Mallon

A midwife at University Hospitals Dorset, who wanted to stay anonymous, said: “I used to enjoy my job and the adrenaline buzz that every delivery suite midwife thrives on.

“Nearly 20 years on, going to work now terrifies me on a daily basis.

“Staff are on their knees and we are having to compromise and prioritise care like never before.

“Important choices for birthing women such as homebirth and continuity are being withdrawn in order to pool resources so staffing levels meet the bare minimum. In 2021, this is just so wrong - we’re not supposed to be going backwards in healthcare.”

Earlier this month, data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) showed that the number of nurses and midwives leaving the professions has risen.

The organisation’s mid-year registration data report showed that a total of 13,945 people left between April and September, compared with 11,020 in the same period last year.

The midwife said: “Midwives and other maternity staff are struggling and I mean really struggling. I am one of the 33 per-cent of midwives with PTSD, and an accompanying broken home life.

March with Midwives in Poole. Credit Claire Mallon

“There seems to be an expectation that we will work through food breaks on 12-hour shifts, stay on late or pick up extra shifts to ‘help out’, go for hours without drinking or using the toilet, work family-unfriendly inflexible shifts, participate in overnight on-calls, deal with recurrent exposure to trauma without adequate support and the list goes on.

“What other job would demand this?

“Almost every midwife I know is looking for work elsewhere or on the verge of getting signed off sick. We cannot keep going like this.”

March with Midwives is calling on politicians to listen to all staff and the people who use maternity services, to fund the emergency retention of staff, to support student training and reduce demands on staff.

Lucy Rose Thomas from Birthing Humans in the New Forest said: “The future mental and physical health of babies, of parents, and therefore of society, hangs in the balance.

“The people we entrust with birth, the midwives who sacrifice time with their families - who stay late to hold the hands of those they care for, who give and give are paid an absolute pittance - are burning out.

March with Midwives in Poole. Credit Claire Mallon

“They are becoming ill, they are leaving and the trauma of this - the trauma of the midwives and the trauma of people birthing in a broken system will shape generations.”

Health chiefs at UHD have said that they are proud of their midwifery team and there is an ongoing recruitment drive. They also hope that the new purpose-built maternity unit will help in attracting more midwives to the region.

Professor Paula Shobbrook, chief nursing officer for University Hospitals Dorset, said: “Dorset is not immune to the recruitment challenges the NHS faces nationally, and midwifery is no exception. Our midwives work tirelessly to provide excellent care to mums and their families, and, like their wider colleagues at University Hospitals Dorset, have prioritised safe, quality care during the pandemic.

“Whilst the past 18 months have been particularly challenging, we know that many have routinely gone the extra mile for mums and babies.

“We work closely with our midwifery teams and provide ready access to a full time professional midwifery advocate who specialises in dedicated and bespoke wellbeing support in recognition of this. As our midwives have supported our mums and babies, so we strive to support our midwives as employers.

“While we are very sad to see 10 valued midwife colleagues leave UHD in the period referred to, we will be welcoming a further 14 between now and the end of January. We hope that the creation of the purpose-built, dedicated maternity unit at the Royal Bournemouth site in the coming years will continue to attract high calibre midwives to this area.

“Midwives provide life-changing care to our mums and babies and we could not be more proud of the team, both current and former, and are committed to ensuring that the experiences our mums have continues to be memorable for all the right reasons.”