I am on strike
I am a midwife. Over the last 10 years the women and babies I support have slowly changed from healthy young women giving natural birth to term babies to higher rates of c/s at earlier gestations with more complex medical histories. The result is increasing care and support required for each dyad. Staffing levels have not changed in this time. A 12hr shift allows 2hr 13 min per room (not per dyad) on the postnatal ward, less on the antenatal ward. With the list of policy driven assessments for these women and babies at increased risk of negative outcomes getting longer and there is simply not enough time to meet the educational and emotional needs of the families. This was before Covid. Women’s needs have dramatically increased as they cannot have the family and friend support due to fears of infection for themselves and their babies.
Every midwife knows that if there is a catastrophic outcome that he/she will be held accountable for not following every policy, for not managing workloads appropriately, for not getting the medication or assessment done on time and will ultimately be facing a tribunal and potentially stripped of registration. Midwives are not staying in practice. Hospitals are having difficulty recruiting. Midwives are being replaced with whatever warm body is available – RN, EN, AIM, AIN. This makes the workload even worse.
I started cutting back the number of shifts I would work in a fortnight, never more than 2 in a row. Then I cut back to only 8hr shifts. I have not worked in a hospital since Decemver and am now cleaning hotel rooms to pay my bills. I feel nauseous every time I think of stepping back onto a maternity ward.
The disparity between the level of care the women deserve and that I know I am able to provide and the level of care that is allowed under the current restraints makes going to work untenable. I am on strike until there is evidence of a real improvement in staffing, not just lip service about the value of women and children in society.