To mention March with Midwives

[Izzy24]

I’m such a tech illiterate that I have no idea how to post a link but perhaps someone can very kindly do it?

On Sunday 21st November Doulas, Midwives, Birthwork people, and families are gathering (not actually Marching) around the nation to try to bring into sharp focus the parlous state of maternity care in the UK. Midwives are on their knees and families are suffering.

Please look to see what is (and isn’t) happening.

I feel quite foolish posting this when I don’t know how to put an actual link and was hoping there might already be a thread. Thank you for reading.

Hopeful bump

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4398553-March-for-midwives-21st-November-2021-2pm

Thank you very much for that @VainAbigail

Have they decided what a woman is? If they go for 'birthing parent' they can walk on their own.

@DeadoftheMoon

Have they decided what a woman is? If they go for 'birthing parent' they can walk on their own.

Well that didn't take long.

@DeadoftheMoon

Have they decided what a woman is? If they go for 'birthing parent' they can walk on their own.

I would be really interested in your reason for saying this.

So not supporting midwives who are trying to bring to attention poor maternity provision, if they dare to call people birthing parent, is somehow supporting women? These are two seperate issues being conflated, its possible to support the midwives march whilst simultaneously speaking out about language choices in their literature

Sorry OP my response was to @deadofthemoon

@Toomanyradishes

Yes I agree.

Can’t help thinking someone squeezing a baby out their body has the right to be whatever the fuck they wish (I say that as someone who’s midwife kept calling me Lizzie when my name is Elizabeth known as Beth - while Lizzie is a perfectly acceptable name, it’s not me at all)!

Anyway, yes, the public need to know how unsafe things actually are in maternity care and there’s a lot more going on to get upset about than the trans debate (which has its place but that’s not one for this march).

@DeadoftheMoon yes, you focus on the trans debate. On this thread. Because that makes sense.

I'll focus on the fact every shift I've worked this week I've seen atleast 1 midwife in tears. I've nearly been in tears myself because I can't care for my women properly. I get upset on my way home because I've given shit care all day and my post section women have gone without their pain relief which is absolutely barbaric. I've not had a break on a 13 hour shift for, god knows, well over 5 weeks. Breaks aren't a thing for us anymore. I sometimes grab a piece of toast if there's a HCA on to make it for us.

A HCA locked herself in the toilet crying because she was so stressed out and unsupported in her role. We couldn't get her to come out. Our women went without their meals that night.

Last week a midwife had a full blown panic attack on the ward due to her ridiculous and unsafe workload. She had to go home because she couldn't catch her breath after an hour of trying to calm down. Leaving me to care for 18 women and 22 babies. If there had been an emergency, I dread to think what the outcome would have been.

I'd be marching, but I'm working, of course.

This is a really serious issue. Matt Hancock was made aware of concerns at Nottingham hospitals and he did nothing. There is now an inquiry as to how things have become so bad.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-59124138

(@DeadoftheMoon, you should be ashamed of yourself.)

@financialadvicenc
I hear you

Copied and pasted from March with Midwives on social media with permission:

If a workforce is exhausted, sad, scared, on edge, paranoid, pressured, or bullied, these will be felt by service users. They too will feel bullied, pressured, coerced, and afraid. Their birth will have an element of fear and danger, a sense of worry in the background.

How many babies are born in this spirit? How many are born every day into a world of fear?

Our babies education about the world begins in the womb. What are we teaching babies, when we evict 40% of them from their first homes? What are we teaching women about their bodies when we act like they are not to be trusted?

How many more generations of us must endure the idea of our bodies being wrong, bad, inadequate, poorly designed, and flawed - almost as a given?

True emergencies would be rare if we stopped meddling and were more present and peacefully watchful at births. If midwives had time to simply BE with women. To sit in silence with them. To sit without fear. To feel a woman's progress with eyes, heart and hands. To know them not as a complete stranger. Without the need to be data inputting for hours on end. To know that all the modern safety tools and machines are there to back up a midwife's own excellent skills, rarely to be needed, but there for the true emergencies.

If midwives could be WITH WOMAN every time, we would not have a third of women saying their birth was traumatic.

If we didn't medicalise and pathologise every healthy woman and simply cared more deeply, more intensely, more presently for her in labour, there would be more joy for everyone.

Time for joy and love and presence and peace and connection at births is what's missing right now.

Love is the strongest pain killer known to humans.

Technology can rarely be a real replacement for eyes, hands, ears and heart.

I know some fine midwives who somehow still manage to protect humanity at births in spite of the pressures. And it's breaking them. It should not break a midwife to have time to love. We need to fix this.

The exodus of amazing, talented, with-woman midwives is a cause for our collective lament.

Let's reimagine a maternity system that heals and does no harm 💖

#MarchwithMidwives

BE with women

Women. I like that.

@DeadoftheMoon

BE with women

Women. I like that.

So now they're worthy in your eyes? Not what financialadvicenc said about the reality midwives are dealing with now? You might want to think about having a good look at yourself.

Bump

So now they're worthy in your eyes? Not what financialadvicenc said about the reality midwives are dealing with now? You might want to think about having a good look at yourself.

Ooh, ouch, ouch, ouch! Now I'm crying.
Not.
You might think about having a look at yourself, making a fuss about next to nothing. I am only interested in people who understand that only a woman is a woman. That seems not to apply in much of the NHS. So.

It was very bad in maternity when I retired as a midwife, that was three years ago and things have got even worse, the stress staff are under is unimaginable and mothers and babies are going to suffer if things don’t change, so many midwives leaving, it’s heartbreaking.

@DeadoftheMoon

So now they're worthy in your eyes? Not what financialadvicenc said about the reality midwives are dealing with now? You might want to think about having a good look at yourself.

Ooh, ouch, ouch, ouch! Now I'm crying.
Not.
You might think about having a look at yourself, making a fuss about next to nothing. I am only interested in people who understand that only a woman is a woman. That seems not to apply in much of the NHS. So.

Even if this were true, do you really think individual employees of the NHS have agency over the terminology they are required to use.

As far as birthing people are concerned, the vast majority are women who wish to be referred to as women and that is exactly how maternity staff refer to them.

Additionally, maternity staff respectfully refer to the very small number of birthing people who do not wish to be referred to as women by whichever pronoun they prefer.

It’s called compassion, it’s called respect, it’s called care.

natureandnurturedoula.co.uk/blog%3A-maternity-mondays/f/when-maternity-breaks?fbclid=IwAR1IkjYrXHJp5uO0iiX1y-Js1KpoaFDA9sBMIfMv0nh77ND6bHWyBtklJso

I don’t know if this will work as a link but here goes.

www.change.org/p/sajidjavid-support-urgent-government-support-and-investment-into-maternity-services-to-solve-the-staffing-crisis?recruiter=70080931&recruited_by_id=0a42b710-51e2-11e3-ba68-91fd9d60ebae&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard

I’m on a roll with links now ..!

Thank you for highlighting this. All midwives I've come across have been pretty good - just had my second and midwives this time were all amazing actually.

I will look into how to support them!

I'd love to attend something like this, but I'd feel a little weird about it, I can't bring about change, is there anything else we can possibly do to show support to our local midwifery team?

Currently pregnant and trying to take up as little of my midwives time, knowing that her workload is absolutely massive and stressful to manage

@LikeSomeKindOfMadness

Thank you for highlighting this. All midwives I've come across have been pretty good - just had my second and midwives this time were all amazing actually.

I will look into how to support them!

Thank you.