March of midwives in call for better funded services

CAMPAIGNERS and parents will stand alongside midwives and healthcare professionals on Sunday to demand improved maternity care, better funded services and a reduction in staffing pressures. They will be joined by other protests taking place in over 30 towns and cities.

A year after the 2021 March With Midwives, in which 16,000 midwives and supporters took to the streets to show their concerns about staffing levels, demands have not been met and working conditions and pay are now declared as a state of emergency.

This week the latest MBBRACE (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries) report revealed that maternal death rates are rising in the UK. Among those deaths were an increase in the suicide rate of new and expectant mothers, very few of them had a mental health diagnosis but significant numbers had a history of trauma.

The March with Midwives’ campaign is a grassroots collective of doulas, midwives and parents. Abbie, a student midwife in Bristol who is one of the local organisers of this year’s city march, said over the past two years she has seen colleagues struggle around her and that the critical staffing shortage makes it increasing difficult to support the most vulnerable women.

Abbie said: “We are protesting for better retention and training for staff, we are 2,500 midwives short in the UK, for every 30 newly-qualified midwives that enter the profession, 29 leave through sickness, retirement or leaving the profession entirely. Burnout is rife within the maternity service and it takes three to 12 months to recover from burnout.

“67 per cent of midwives wish they could deliver better care to women and babies but due to staff shortages they are more often than not understaffed, working unsafe ratios and it means we cannot give good breastfeeding support and clinical care. The NHS spends about £3 billion a year on agency midwives, they wouldn’t need to if it provided the support maternity services need.

“We need better staff retention and more support with training, when I qualify as a midwife, I will start with over £70,000 of debt from training. You have to rely on student loans as you are working full time on placements, doing assignments and trying to balance family life so there isn’t much flexibility to work.”

The Bristol March with Midwives takes place on Sunday, November 20, at 2pm on College Green.