Midwives protesting in London in November 2021 (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Thousands of health workers and supporters are set to march to demand action on the maternity crisis in a series of protests across Britain on Sunday.
The “March With Midwives” is set to take place at 32 locations, and follows demonstrations totalling 16,000 people last November. Elsie Gayle, a midwife for “a very long time,” told Socialist Worker that “What we want is action—we don’t want to keep talking”.
“We want a solution. We can’t keep marching from year to year, protesting, lobbying. We need a solution. We need the service to be repaired so women are not frightened, so they are not traumatised.”
The March With Midwives campaign group has a five-point manifesto. It is demanding that the government listens to parents and maternity staff and funds more maternity workers.
It is also calling for improved maternity care, a reduction in the demands on workers and the government to act immediately to save maternity services. It said that the crisis is so severe “it is a genuine national emergency which impacts every level of society”.
“Maternity services are critically unsafe for staff and users,” argues the campaign. It said some 60 percent of midwives surveyed in 2021 were considering leaving the profession—meaning the sector would be short of safe staffing levels.
“It is at a critical point, said Elsie. “We’ve had the pandemic and the exacerbation of waiting lists. The fact is, it is in crisis.”
“Midwives are tired, they’re burnt out, they cannot do what they’ve been trained to do and they’re so frustrated. Some of them are just leaving, and that creates more work for the people left behind.”
March With Midwives argues that midwife numbers have fallen year-on-year since records began in 2009. It’s creating a situation “leaving an overworked and under-resourced workforce, putting women and birthing people in danger”.
And services are so overstretched that they pose a threat to the lives of women. The government claimed to want to reduce maternal mortality in England in 2010-2025—yet it is on the rise.
Charity MBRRACE-UK warned in its latest report last week that deaths of pregnant, birthing and post-natal women were increasing. Figures from 2018-2020 show that maternal mortality rates were 24 percent higher than the levels in 2017-2019.
And for Professor Marian Knight, who led the study, it points to a more general sense of crisis in the health care system. “Maternal mortality rates are a barometer of health systems,” she said. “This, for me, is a barometer of our health system in its widest sense.”
The findings come just four months after the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s Expert Panel warned there is “no credible government strategy to tackle the situation” in maternity care.
The Royal College of Midwives said, “Not a day goes by that we don’t hear of a maternity service having to close temporarily, suspend services or divert women to other maternity units just because there simply aren’t enough midwives.”
In England and Wales, strike ballot papers went out to workers in the Royal College of Midwives union last week.
Striking against poverty pay is a central way of delivering a better, safer service for women. And getting out on Sunday and fighting for decent maternity care should be a priority for everyone.
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