Midwives: It’s time to deliver
Lucia Alonso has worked as a midwife in several countries, but says New Zealand’s poor pay, gruelling hours and staggering workload forced her out of the job.
Alonso, formerly a rural midwife, said the demands of the job were relentless as a woman could go into labour at any time. It was always a gamble how long she would be away from her family for and taking leave was nearly impossible. Her experience was common in the industry, which was rife with overworked staff stretched beyond capacity, she said.
Midwives marched and protested around the country yesterday, including a 200-strong group who descended on Parliament in Wellington to ask Government to accept a proposed funding model for midwives.
Andrea Sarty, deputy chair of New Zealand College of Midwives Wellington, said when the current pay model was established, it assumed women had uncomplicated births. The New Zealand College of Midwives estimates the average hourly income is just $7.23 for rural midwives and $12.80 for urban midwives.
Socio-economic pressures, obesity among pregnant women and a greater number of scans have increased midwives’ workloads, but their pay remained ‘‘frozen’’.
There was no funding for travel costs nor administrative work. If a pregnant woman left the area due to a complicated birth – for instance travelling to a hospital – the midwife then lost the nearly $1000 ‘‘birthing fee’’, which covers much of their earlier work.
Alonso said if a woman in her care gave birth while she was away, it could cost her up to $2000 to pay someone else to cover for her. If nothing changed, rural midwives would continue to quit, leaving mums hours away from their nearest hospital.
Friends working in small southern towns were at their wits end and many were considering leaving, she said. The Wanaka Midwives practice is down to one fulltime practitioner and the closest primary birthing unit is an hour away in Alexandra.
Morgan Weathington finished in Wanaka in late March and earlier said although she loved her job, she was exhausted after working 100-hour weeks for $5 an hour under the existing funding model.
‘‘It’s make or break time and I don’t want [the midwifery care system] to break,’’ Alonso said. She joined 300 other pram-pushing mothers, midwives and healthcare workers in a march through Christchurch’s Hagley Park past Christchurch Women’s Hospital yesterday.
Student midwife Kirsty Wilkinson, who led the Christchurch march, said midwives were not compensated fairly for their commitment.