Isle of Wight families and midwives are coming together for a peaceful protest regarding the crisis in maternity services all over the country with a protest planned for Church Litten this Sunday (20th November).
The Isle of Wight is one of only two Trusts in the UK to be fully staffed in its Maternity Services. This is a relatively recent achievement and a good news story for the Island. However, the overall picture for maternity services across the country is not so promising.
According to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), maternity services across the UK are in a state of emergency. Since records began in 2009, the number of NHS midwives has fallen in England year on year, leaving an overworked and under-resourced workforce, putting women and birthing people in danger.
A year after the 2021 March With Midwives, in which 16,000 midwives and supporters took to the streets to show their concerns about the dangerously low staffing levels, demands have not been met and midwives’ working conditions and pay are now declared as a state of emergency.
On July 25th 2022, the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s Expert Panel declared there is “no credible government strategy to tackle the situation” in maternity care.
As healthcare professionals and public sector workers across the country prepare to strike, members of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are set to receive their ballot papers (11 November) in advance of proposed industrial action over pay.
This week, the latest MBBRACE report reveals that maternal death rates are rising in the UK. Up to 30% of all mothers rate their birth as traumatic and similar percentages showed some symptoms commensurate with PTSD.
The RCM have said:
“Not a day goes by that we don’t hear of a maternity service having to close temporarily, suspend services or divert women to other maternity units just because there simply aren’t enough midwives. This can’t continue because we know it compromises safety and means women don’t always get the safe positive pregnancy and birth experience that they should.”
“It is clear that maternity services in the UK are in crisis, giving birth in the UK; a high-income country, is becoming critically unsafe. This is unacceptable. Where we have women, birthing people and babies at risk; their families, communities and countries become sick. This is a genuine national emergency which impacts every level of society.
“We call on the UK government to implement urgent crisis management and resources. Government promises are not being kept and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Maternity must take responsibility for their silence and call for immediate action.”
This year the RCM Island protest will be held at Church Litten Park in Newport on Sunday (20 November) at 13:45, with a photo of the gathering to take place at 14:00.
Whilst I stand with our Midwives, I’d like to know if their protest will be met with the same backlash as the article posted last week about nurses planning to strike?
All corners of the NHS deserve to protest their pay, staffing levels and patient safety concerns.
Midwives are under a tremendous amount of pressure. Childbirth is dangerous and things go wrong very quickly. The unit is understaffed and there have already been cases of Midwives being pilloried in the Coroners Court when things did go very wrong. The real blame, however, lies with the uncountable stress caused by severe staff shortages and management bullying.
Management are all too happy to throw a midwife under a bus, when things go wrong, to save their own skins. This has the knock-on effect of driving more and more to leave the profession as they know they could be next. This just adds to the stress and increases the chances of a catastrophic error prompting even more to leave the profession.
Rinse and repeat.
I’m certainly not criticising their decision to want to strike, I believe they deserve safe staffing levels and better pay, just like all frontline workers within the NHS.
I know from personal experience how quickly things can go downhill in childbirth, it happened to me – and the team were phenomenal. My previous comment was aimed at anyone who wanted to support midwives, but not nurses. Especially as there is only one maternity unit on the island in comparison to a whole hospital of nurses, which no doubt have a larger workforce than midwives on our tiny island.
But, nurses too, end up in coroners, with management passing the buck. Either way, it’s not right, whatever your profession. I fully support any strike within the NHS