Midwives in Wales, England and Scotland last week protested over the crisis in birth and maternity services. Those in Cardiff spoke to Tom Davies about how they aren’t able to drink water or go to the toilet in a 12 hour shift, and their heartbreak at not being able to provide the care they want to.
Image: Midwives protesting in Cardiff against the staffing crisis and low pay, Tom Davies
“It’s tough, yeah,” says Jess, a newly qualified midwife. “You know, I’ve always wanted to be a midwife and the reason I came into midwifery was so that I could care for women and give them the care that they deserved. But it’s difficult to do that when you just haven’t got the staffing or the facilities to do it.”
Jess is not her real name. As a new midwife, she’s worried about talking in public but has come out to protest with a small number of her fellow workers.
They are standing next to the Nye Bevan Statue in Cardiff as part of a day of action in Wales, England and Scotland called March With Midwives which took place on Sunday 21st November, aimed at highlighting the staffing crisis in maternity services.
Whilst the majority of protests happened in England, there was a large event in Swansea and smaller ones in Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Bangor.
“All the midwives in the unit are amazing…and everybody is trying to support each other,” says Jess. “But there’s only so much you can do when there is a shortage of midwives.”
She says that even when midwives qualify, many don’t come into the profession because “it’s such a difficult environment to be in now.”
“It’s heartbreaking really,” she says. “I wanted to be a midwife so much. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
“And now that I’ve started, I’ve realised that the very reason I wanted to be a midwife – to put lots of time into caring for women – I’m not able to do because there’s…” Jess finishes mid sentence before carrying on.
“You give the women all the care that you can in the time that you’ve got with them, but then you need to move on to somebody else, just because there are not enough midwives, there aren’t as many people as what we need.”
“I can’t be the midwife I want to be because I’ve got so much to do, you know, and there’s so little staff to do it.”
This is an alarmingly common experience for midwives according to those at the protest.
“Services and midwives are in absolute crisis, there’s not enough of them,” says Samantha, a doula – birth partner – who has turned up in solidarity with the midwives she often works alongside.
“The midwives that are there are thinking of leaving, the entire system is understaffed and underfunded and maternity services are breaking.”
Samantha says she sees the situation up close through those she supports, and is terrified at what is happening before her eyes.
“Midwives are working 12,13,14,15 hour shifts, not being able to have a wee, not being able to have a lunch break…and it’s leading to illness.”
“If you think about not going to the toilet for 12 hours because you can’t leave these birthing people or these women because there’s nobody to come and mind them, then you get bladder infections, mental health issues, midwives are breaking down, midwives are leaving.”
She says that a lot of the midwifes she knows personally have already left due to unbearable stress and pressure, and tells of one incident where a midwife had “a panic attack and left mid shift and never went back.”
One example of the poor treatment midwives face which Samantha points to is that the new Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital in Cwmbran has no staff room for midwives. “It’s been built beautifully for those giving birth, but without any consideration for those people working.”
Midwives protesting in Cardiff, Tom Davies
One statistic mentioned repeatedly is that out of 30 midwives who qualify, a staggering 29 end up leaving the profession early.
“The majority of midwives here are absolutely demoralised, our workforce has been decimated,” says Laura, who’s into her second year as a qualified midwife in Cardiff.
“It’s a shocking statistic that 75% of midwives experience PTSD [Post Traumatric Stress Disorder],” she says. “And we’re expected to just kind of smile and carry on, it’s not fair. Midwives need more support, we need the infrastructure behind us, we need better pay.”
The issue of pay has become even more important as the cost of living rises and the pressures of the job are so much for workers to bear.
“I mean, when you qualify as a midwife, the pay is absolutely abysmal, is about 24 grand a year for huge levels of responsibility,” Laura says.
‘12 rounds with Mike Tyson.’
“If we were to make a mistake, or if we were to make the wrong judgement,” says new midwife Jess, “that could potentially be, you know, life changing for somebody.”
She says that after a 12 hour shift, she feels like she’s “done 12 rounds with Mike Tyson with your hands tied behind your back and blindfolded.”
“It’s not a problem with the midwives or the staff, it’s much higher than that. It’s the government not giving us what we need to be able to provide the right care.”
For those who are still students and about to qualify, the future looks bleak.
“I’ve loved my training,” says Polly. “But as I get closer to qualifying, it makes me anxious about being a midwife. I’m scared because I’ve seen the newly qualified midwives aren’t happy, and they’re not enjoying it.”
Her fellow student Anna agrees: “It’s a job that has so much potential to have amazing job satisfaction, but you feel like you’ve let your women down because you haven’t been able to give them enough time.”
This on-the-job training has given them an insight into what life will be like as a midwife, with every minute of their time spent rushing from job to job, patient to patient.
“Often you just can’t go to the toilet,” says Anna. “And it hits you at six o’clock in the evening when you’ve been there since 7am, but you haven’t had a drink or been to the toilet.”
This is a far stretch from the world of midwifery that popular culture puts forward, where workers have time to spend with those they are looking after.
Instead the staffing crisis is so severe and the pressure so great that they are simply breaking under the strain.
This is a story you hear very little about, until, of course, something tragic happens as a result of the crisis that so many midwives are already warning about.
Central to the question of the workforce is decent pay, without which it’s harder to recruit and retain midwives. This mirrors problems faced by other health workers such as nurses.
Welsh Government is responsible for health in Wales, and the Labour-run administration are currently trying to impose a 3% pay deal on NHS workers.
But the deal has angered unions and is below the current rate of inflation and has been rejected by health workers in all major unions in the NHS.
The Royal College of Midwives in Wales have balloted their members over the deal and 95% rejected it, with over half saying they would be prepared to take strike action.
UNISON Cymru Wales, the largest union in the Welsh NHS, are currently recommending its members reject the 3% deal, which would pave the way for strike action. Members have until 10th December to vote.
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