Every day on the board, we hear from women and from midwives about the impact of maternity services being at breaking point. Suzanne Tyler, trade union Executive Director of the Royal College of Midwives writes about the midwives shortage and how you can support them:
"Midwives often describe their job as a privilege. They get to be there through one of the most pivotal periods in a family’s life, providing care and support. They see new families form, existing families grow, and they speak with pride about how they are part of that. Lately, though, I’ve been having more conversations with midwives about the pressure they’re under, their concerns for the profession they love, and whether they can do it anymore.
So what has brought about this shift? Put simply, we don’t have enough midwives. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) calculated last year that we were at least 2,000 midwives short in England alone – a figure that’s been accepted by the Department of Health & Social Care. Since then, the shortfall has continued to rise, with more midwives leaving the profession every month. Those who stay are caught in a vicious cycle: they are under more pressure because there are too few midwives, the pressure pushes them toward the door, the pressure on the remaining midwives increases.
It's important to say that this hasn’t happened overnight, or even over the past year. This is the result of more than a decade of underinvestment in maternity services by the Government. Since 2010, we have called on no fewer than five Health Secretaries to make urgent and sustained investment in maternity services, but our calls have fallen on deaf ears. And this isn’t just the RCM saying this. The House of Commons Health & Social Care Select Committee said that maternity funding for England should be increased by £200-350 million every year. Not only that, but their Expert Panel has rated the Government as inadequate on its progress on the NHS in England, including maternity. Now, as a result of Government inaction, maternity services are fast approaching crisis point.
What we hear most often from midwives is their concern that they aren’t able to look after women to the best of their ability – or to do so safely. They’re stretched far too thinly, trying to support too many women at once, and they aren’t able to give women the personal care they deserve. Every midwife, every maternity support worker goes into work every day to provide the best care and support they can to women and families. But, all too often, they are working within services that are at breaking point.
Every day, there are midwives and MSWs working 12-hour shifts who aren’t able to take meal breaks or even pop to the loo. In a recent survey of our members in Scotland, we heard awful stories of staff bleeding through their uniforms because they didn’t even have time to change their tampons. Not only is that pushing staff to the limit, it’s taking away basic dignity. It’s not surprising that the maternity workforce is exhausted and demoralised.
The original meaning of midwife is ‘with woman’ and if you ask any midwife, that’s what they love about their job. It’s the opportunity to support, advocate and care for women. Which is why they are finding the current situation so heart-breaking.
As you would expect as the trade union and professional association for midwives and MSWs, we are using every opportunity we can to shine a light on these issues and to bring about positive change. But we can’t do it on our own. We need people like you to step forward too. We need you to talk about why investing in maternity services is so important, not just for mothers and babies, but for women’s health generally. We need you to write to your MP, to your local newspaper, or even national newspapers, about why the Government, the next Prime Minister, should make investing in maternity services a priority. The more of us that speak up, the harder we will be to ignore.
Being a midwife or a maternity support worker and being present at some of the most important moments of a family’s life may indeed be a privilege, but these are also highly skilled roles. Safe, high quality care is literally in the hands of these professionals, yet the Government only appears interested when things go wrong – as, sadly, they sometimes do. All of us – maternity staff and those in receipt of their care – have a vested interest in ensuring we invest in quality and safety to ensure we reduce those risks. So, stand with us and add your voice to ours in calling for more investment."