70 year old midwives?

[Ispywith]

Do you think the Government is BU to make all midwives work until they are 68 +? Midwives have to decide whether to take this offer (rather than 60/65 as previously) or to take serious industrial action. What are your views on being looked after by a 70 year old midwife who is on her 3rd 13 hour shift with no breaks? I think it is going to be unsafe for mothers and babies. Some 68/70 year olds are fit and healthy but doing this job - not so sure it is do-able for most. What's your thoughts?

And the walking. And the bending. I'm convinced I must walk miles a shift.

My back is so shite I already struggle to get out of uniform and in to blues in double quick time for emergency section. I have to sit on the floor to take my tights off [no chairs in changing room].

Jeez imagine when I'm 68

You have women leaning on you in active births, expecting to be helped to move, sit up when they've got an epidural or after a section.

Mad dashes to theatre pulling a bed, a ctg machine and drip stand. Transferring a woman who can't move from a bed to theatre table and then back.

Standing up for 11 hours without sitting down once.

I sweat like a pig at work.

I cannot imagine wanting to work age 68. I know I won't be as effective (I'm already weary approaching 50)

It's like we are dividing society into people who will work from school to grave and others who cannot get jobs because we're not releasing them by letting anyone retire!

most lollipop ladies/men are in their 70s+ - helping our children cross busy roads......

1. Not really that physical
2. Hardly the same as a 13 hour shift, is it ??

ok fair enough i do stay very quiet during labour ( and my 3rd was face presentation with no pain relief) but i can understand that some women might throw themselves about a bit and be a bit more physical
but surely a midwife would still be able to do things like antenatal care 9-5, or visiting mums at home after birth or helping on the postnatal wards with breast feeding

having said that i agree that ppl shouldn't be working late in life when young ppl are available to do the work - that is just wasteful on the govt's part

and with the lollipop thing i was referring to mental health rather than physical- (i cared for a mother -in- law with dementia who couldn't cross the road safely but you can't assume that all older people have poor mental health)

My overall point was that not all older people are incapable and they can still fulfill certain aspects of their job - its just about adjusting the job to suit.

So who do we think should work until 70?

MNers seem to be aghast at teachers and midwives working to the same retirement age as everyone else will have, so I assume there are other jobs which people think are suitable for 70 year-olds?

Maybe we will end up in clinic. Though saying that they're talking about not having clinic midwives anymore.

Breastfeeding support gives you terrible backache. The pace on the pn/an ward is very fast. Just as tiring as labour ward. And anyway where I work you have o rotate round the diffent wards.

Community midwives have to do home births. I couldn't stand community, I'd be shit at it. I'm ot organised enough to keep paperwork up to date. I can do my records ok for a shift. But the thought of keeping track of women for 40 weeks,etc ..... I couldn't do it.

I wish you could work 9-5 as a midwife but babies come when they like. Antenatal care is often long shifts as women have serious problems that don't occur just in the day & as for postnatal & community work this is sometimes the hardest to juggle including on calls. Basically unless you have a management role you are fecked!! From the face of it bring a midwife doesn't look hard & stupid programmes like one born every minute does not help! They seem to sit & eat cake! Terrible editing! They prob haven't had a meal on 12 hours do make to with cake.....obese & 70!!! No hope !

blubberyboo - the thing about communtiy is that that is one of the hardest roles in terms of autonomous working and also oncalls. We regulary get our Com midwives in during night shifts as they are the on call and if we run out of staff they are next on the list.

Add to that the pressues of the mental cost of the pressures surrounding child protection [which community are at the coal face of] and the long hours - I am pretty sure hospital is actually easier in many ways!

Most hospital antenatl clinics have one or two whole time equivalents and the community based ones are run by community. It just isn't a viable option for the amount of older midwived who will be working.

Also I would urge people, whatever their own experience of midwifery, to try not underestimate the legal and moral implications of the role. The very real nature of the job means that the autonomy, accountability and trust negligence schemes and the role of notekeeping and all that jazz - that is all very real and needs to be 100% at all times. Nothing less. I fear for my own abilities as I wind down. And to imagine I wont be winding down by 65 is bonkers. I'm nearly half cabbaged from shifts and children as it is!

I know a lady who is now 81 who has only recently given up nursing. She wasn't a MW but did work in a local hospital & do St Johns too. She worked extra shifts when the snow was bad because she could walk into work unlike others who had to drive further.

An inspiration to all who know her.

No jobs, fifty in my cohort.....lots still not employed a year after qualifying, and most of the ones who do have jobs are only part time. A couple went to London for work too. It's very soul destroying, especially if you want to work in the community and need experience in hospital first, but can't get it.

Shellyboobs maybe people that don't literally have you & your baby's life in their hands! OTT but very true.......what a nation puts into it's NHS they get back .....tired knackered staff that are crap & people die. Let us retire at 65 if we want & let the youngsters train up & pay less on job seekers

Smug. The amount of part time contracts is really depressing too. Young women with huge debts trying to save for deposits being offered 16 hrs.

Viva - if I win the lottery I'll retire you at 50. Deal.

Ipsy - I would rather pay more tax than have my life in the hands of a MW who really needed to retire 5 years ago, have been working for 11 hours and maybe can't suture as well as she used to because her hands are starting to get a bit arthritic.

Tigress, my grandmother was a similar woman who was doing geriatric nursing in her late 70s ! I guess the difference was that she chose to carry on, it wasn't forced

well ladies good luck with your protests to the govt - hopefully they will take it on board before it leads to industrial action
there are lots of youngsters out there trying to get into the profession - my sister tried to get into a nursing degree with 3 As with a view to doing midwifery but was unsuccessful in getting a place - something like 1500 applicants and only 150 places - she had to think of a new career

just as a completely different side question and i'm sorry for hijacking but am just interested
vivalebeaver you said that breastfeeding support gives you backache - i just wondered what kind of support you give?..the reason i ask is that my support consisted of "that looks like you're doing it ok so it shouldn't hurt..but don't drink that raspberry juice cos you'll regret it later"..i never stuck at it for any length of time with first 2 and ended up having to combine feed with no 3 and gave up completely a few weeks later. What do you normally try to do with your patients?

I suspect I will choose to work after 60/65. I won't choose my current pressured job and I won't choose full time.

As regards the what job is suitable for a 70 yr old? Carpentry, gardening, handiman, decorating........ there are loads and loads of jobs that are more challenging to some people as they age.

When we have young people unable to get work WTF are we flogging the elderly?

Just checking attachment and position. Leaning over, bending down so you can see how baby is attached, sitting twisted on the bed to do so.

But I can be there for 20 mins or more.

Anything to do with breastfeeding and all fours deliveries. Back breakers.

And standing in theatre. Does for my legs pelvis and back.

Tired just thinking about it. Imagine doing it in 30 years!! Argh!!

Here's another knackered midwife. A birthstool is a killer for your back and neck and knees and ankles 12.5 hours non-stop in 30 degree heat. I wore one of those pedometres one day. 16000 steps. (that didn't include me walking to and from work).
Only another 30 years to go.

viva you dont lose a years money to train as a HV, you get paid at your current salary. Ive just left ITU to do the year HV course, its pretty full on for a year but i can reduce my hours back to PT after. So if you wanted to you could change. You will lose increments though, which for those of us used to shiftwork is pretty hard

treedelivery there is a massive recruitment for HVs at the moment due to the governments HV Implementation Plan. 4500 new HVs are needed over the next few years

My mother worked until 68 on a postnatal maternity ward. She stopped work after physically collapsing on duty. It was the end of a shift and a heat wave.
They were really busy and mother had had no break. There was nothing wrong with my mother's competence, she just physically could not cope with 100 degree heat, 12 hour shift and looking after to many mothers.

It really did not help the care of the mothers having a midwife carted off to A and E.

If the goverment is going to have midwives at 68 then prehaps they should do half shifts.

soverylucky I agree.

It all sounds very simple - there are lots of young unemployed people who could be going into jobs that older people are in until they're 70 but the cost of 'swapping' them would be immense.

What does JSA cost for an 18 y/o who's out of work? £3500/yr ?

What does a pension cost for someone at 65 with 40 years of service in a midwife's role? £15,000/yr+ ?