Suffolk midwives calling for urgent action over maternity staffing crisis
March with Midwives vigils are being held in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds today.
Midwives in Suffolk will be holding vigils in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds to highlight the crisis facing the maternity sector and call on Government to act urgently.
'March with Midwives' action is taking place across the country, including in neighbouring Norfolk and Essex.
Helen Fortis is a doula who is organising the march in Bury St Edmunds.
She explains the problem: "60 percent of midwives are currently thinking of leaving the profession. Existing staff shortages are putting pressure on them. This means that they cannot be in the number of places at once that they need to be in order to prevent traumatic birth and give women and birthing people a positive outcome.
"We're saying, ultimately there is shortage of midwives that needs to be addressed urgently. Out of every 30 midwives who are training, 29 midwives are leaving. And the way the Government is planning to address that doesn't match what we need to see happen."
They have four basic demands in their manifesto, which includes asking the Government to listen to all staff and service users and their advocates, fund emergency retention of staff who want to leave and invest in new staff, enable anybody willing to work or train and to reduce the demands on staff
Ms Fortis believes that the reason for Government inaction is the cost it will take to fix the system: "Lots of policies in place currently are about trying to save money. There's also been a long period of austerity.
"Some of it also has to do with not being willing to face that things are in a dire strait, even though understaffing has been a problem for many years."
The march in Bury St Edmunds will begin at the Abbey gardens at 1.45 pm, followed by a short march across the town. The vigil in Ipswich will take place at 2pm from Cornhill.
"This is not really a niche issue. Each one of us has interacted with a midwife at some point in our lives. Birth trauma makes a big difference to both mother and baby. If they experience significant birth trauma then it could affect the mental health for mothers as well as affect the baby even in adulthood", she says.
So what will happen if these issues aren't addressed?
"There will be no more midwives to talk about. We are at a point where if the 60 percent who want to leave are let go, and are not replaced, there would be even more strain on those that remain.
"I just think its the beginning of ultimately what could be the end of what we know as midwifery in this country", she adds.