Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Ensure pregnant women are cared for
The Royal College of Midwives has asked NHS leaders to safeguard pregnant women during the coronavirus pandemic.
There is concern that vital staff, including midwives and maternity support workers, will be redeployed to other areas.
This is at a time when a study has found that the shortage of midwives on NHS maternity units has doubled since the start of the outbreak.
Even before then, services were struggling to get by with almost one in 10 midwifery posts vacant.
Survey respondents now report that this shortage has doubled to 20%. The disease itself as well as self-isolation has combined with existing staff vacancies to mean one in five midwife roles are unstaffed now.
This was a survey of heads and directors of midwifery from across the UK, carried out by the RCM.
Gill Walton, the group’s chief executive, said: “While other areas of the health service can postpone and cancel procedures, there is still an ongoing need for maternity services. “Women are still pregnant, still having babies, and they need the care and support of properly resourced maternity services.
“We have to ensure that midwives and maternity support workers are ringfenced from any redeployment to ensure that women continue to receive safe care.
“What this survey shows is that coronavirus is exposing the gaps that already exist in maternity services.
“The shortage of midwives has doubled since the start of the outbreak, a situation which is only likely to worsen as the pandemic spreads further.” Over a fifth (22%) of survey respondents also reported that local midwife-led maternity units had been closed and nearly eight out of 10 midwives had ended routine face-to-face appointments before and after birth.
Ms Walton continued: “We have to protect the maternity front door and continue to provide the levels of care and support pregnant women need.”