Shannon McGuigan
Vigils have been sparked across Wales, Scotland and England to bring attention to the ‘maternity crisis’ that is occurring within the NHS, with dozens marching to highlight the dire staffing and working conditions.
What is happening to midwifery in the NHS?
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) conducted a survey that discovered that 57% of midwives intended to leave the NHS within the next year. The RCM is voicing concern that midwives are being pushed out of the NHS due to lack of staff and as a result, a grave concern that they are unable to “deliver safe care to women in the current system”. The survey also illustrated that midwives who had been in the profession for the NHS for five years or less expressed the highest levels of displeasure.
The RCM has requested health chiefs to “urgently review” levels of staff. Chief Executive of the RCM, Gil Walton, expressed the severity of the situation, saying, “Safety in maternity services hang in the balance here because, without adequate numbers of staff, we are fighting a losing battle.”
The danger of this inadequacy in staff levels is becoming more apparent, with many devastating and high-profile maternity scandals occurring across the UK, with scandals at hospitals in East Kent, Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford in England and at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board in South Wales.
Understaffing of midwives is threatening the safety of mothers and babies
The importance of midwives to the lives of mothers and children across the country is clear. Stories of them saving lives up and down the nation are bountiful. Vikki and Florence’s story told to the BBC, is one of many expressions of admiration for midwives in the NHS.
Vikki gave birth to her daughter at home in Penmaenpool, Gwynedd in June 2020. However, she needed medical attention after she retained her placenta. Due to huge hospital shortages in Wales, the nearest hospital to Vikki at that time was a staggering 55-mile drive away in the town of Bangor.
“To give birth, you rely on midwives”
However, when the long-awaited ambulance arrived, it had no car seat; paramedics were not expecting to transfer a newborn as well as an adult.
Vikki reiterated to the BBC that her daughter “had to go in a car seat with [her] in the ambulance but 40 minutes into the journey, [her] midwife noticed Flo was struggling to breathe.”
During this 90-minute journey, both the midwife and paramedic were being “thrown around in the back”. Yet they still managed to save both Vikki and Florence’s lives, during this turbulent beginning to Florence’s life.
Looking back on Florence’s turbulent birth, Vikki stated that her story “is not unique” continuing that “to give birth, you rely on midwives. It’s a momentous time in someone’s life but you need medically trained professionals.”. Vikki’s reasoning for attending the march for midwives in Bangor is that the profession was “underfunded and undervalued” by the governments within the UK.
Feeling ‘burnt out’, undervalued, and understaffed
This is a sentiment felt by mothers and midwives alike. A community midwife in Nottinghamshire, Ms Thornley expressed to the BBC, “I have been a midwife for 25 years and it is the first time I have felt the need to act.” Feeling extremely undervalued, Ms Thornley continued to state that midwives work 13-hour days often “barely hav[ing] time to get a drink or go to the toilet.”
“You are part of this beautiful daily experience, but it’s being tainted by the struggles of staffing in the country.”
Ms Thornley stated the higher difficulties in midwifery at present, “look[ing] after three to four labouring women at one time” with “so many more complexities than there ever used to be”, such as many more women with underlying mental health issues, overweight women, and women unable to communicate clearly, with English being their second language.
While supporting the vigil in College Green, Bristol, Midwife Sophie Inman said to her fellow midwives, “You are part of this beautiful daily experience but it’s being tainted by the struggles of staffing in the country.” She continued expressing that midwives often arrive at work not knowing if there will be adequate staffing and that this is a nationwide issue.
An ante-natal educator, Katie Campion, aided in co-organising a vigil in Leeds which saw a crowd of 100 people. She also expressed concern that midwives are currently “burnt out” and “ready to leave”, continuing that this issue was about “the safety of the birthing women, the parents and the midwives as well”. She stated that “Physically and mentally [midwives] can’t cope with what they have to deal with at the moment and its about supporting them.”
Grace Williams, a post-natal doula who partook in a vigil in Torquay illustrated the dire situation regarding safety and staffing levels in the profession to the BBC. She commented, “Even though there are midwives being trained in universities, for every 30 in training, 29 leave the profession, or just never make it,” further expressing that this was not only a staffing crisis but a training crisis causing many to leave “before they even started their career.”
What action is being taken by the government?
The Welsh government has stated that they will conduct a review of the service demand of the profession.
A spokesperson from the Department for Health and Social Care stated that they were “committed to patient safety, eradicating avoidable harms and making the NHS the safest place in the world to give birth”, further relaying that “Midwives do an incredibly important job and we know how challenging it has been for those working during the pandemic.”
In response to claims of understaffing and a training crisis, the Department for Health and Social Care has claimed that they are aiming to hire 1,200 more midwives with a £95m recruitment fund.
In acknowledgement of feelings of midwives being undervalued and extremely stressed in the workplace, the Department of Health and Social Care has noted that the wellbeing of staff is a “key priority” and that the NHS provides a wide range of support by means of “dedicated helplines and mental health and wellbeing hubs.”
Featured image courtesy of Solen Feyissa on Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes have been made to this image.
ShannonMcGuigan
Shannon McGuigan is one of our Editor in Chiefs at Empoword. She is a trainee journalist studying the News Journalism MA course at Cardiff University and is also freelancing in her spare time! She enjoys crying about shorthand and going on long walks with her rescue dog.