March With Midwives

Published on: 07/12/2021

Sunday 21st November 2021 saw vigils all across the UK to bring awareness to the maternity crisis; a survey conducted by the Royal College of Midwives showed that half the staff have considered leaving midwifery. Many of these midwives feel that staffing levels are not safe.

A midwife from the West Midlands, Elsie Gayle, said at the vigil: “The situation is at crisis point at the moment in terms of staffing… many have left, many midwives plan to leave, but it also highlights a long-term situation in terms of the number of midwives in the system.”

Speaking of the vigils in Victoria Square in Birmingham, Gayle said that “Hence we’re calling for attention now, so that we can actually do something fundamental to change the situation for midwives, for mothers, families, to improve the service because to be honest, British midwifery is world renowned for being first class.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care has stated that  “Midwives do an incredibly important job and we know how challenging it has been for those working during the pandemic. There are more midwives working in the NHS now than at any other time in its history and we are aiming to hire 1,200 more with a £95m recruitment drive.” The statement emphasized that the mental wellbeing of the midwives is of their utmost priority.

At MAMA Academy, we are calling on the government to give maternity services the utmost priority in terms of funding and support so that expectant parents and their babies can be guaranteed the safest and best possible care, here in the UK.