A former midwife quit her job because she could not ‘live with herself’ if she provided poor care.
The former NHS worker told the BBC that staff shortages meant patients were kept safe, but only ‘by the skin of her teeth,’ and she believes improvements won’t be seen anytime soon.
Statistics show the number of full-time midwife posts has increased by seven per cent in the last decade, with the overall general NHS workforce going up by 34%.
However, reports say that the country still has a shortage of around 2,500 midwives, and maternity and birthing units are struggling. In November, the BBC reported that 67% of 178 maternity units in England were not consistently meeting safety standards.
35-year-old Hannah Williams said she had to ‘walk away’ from the job she used to love because of her concerns.
She said: “I walked away from it because I couldn’t live with myself if I provided unsafe care for someone because the staff numbers were unsafe.
“I miss it. But I also mourn it, because I don’t see it improving.”
Recent figures show that maternity units had the worst safety ratings of all hospital services inspected by the Care Quality Commission. But since these figures were recorded there has been another decline.
The BBC reports that new data shows that seven in 10 maternity units in the UK are ‘not always safe.’
Figures show that although the number of babies being born is falling, births are becoming more complex. Ten years ago, 13% of deliveries were caesarean sections, but now data shows that figure has reached 23%.
Hannah added that her unit was always so short-staffed, she had to look after too many mothers and babies at the same time.
Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said the “huge gaps in midwifery staffing levels” are a historic issue because maternity services are often not prioritised.
“What we’re asking for is not to be at the back of the queue, not to be overlooked,” she added.
The Royal College of Midwives is concerned that the staffing issues will cause a ‘vicious circle’, which will mean that existing midwives have to work harder because of the fewer members of staff, which can lead to burnout and the risk of them resigning.
“We do need more midwives, and we need to keep the ones we’ve got. Being a midwife is probably one of the best professions in the world. And we really need to look after them,” Gill added.
A Freedom of Information request was submitted to 106 NHS trusts with maternity units. The FOI asked how many full-time midwife posts were included in the budgets to have for the summer of 2023, and how many of those jobs were vacant.
According to the figures, on average, 11% of midwife jobs were empty, which equates to 25 unfilled posts per trust. In some of the trusts, there were shortages of more than 20%, with the highest at 35%.
NHS maternity units – what’s being done?
Plans are underway to train and hire more midwives to improve the state of NHS maternity and birthing units. The government says it wants to increase the number of midwives in training by 13% by next year.
The Department of Health and Social Care says it has invested in £165m a year to improve maternity and neonatal care – and this figure will soon go up to £186m.
Labours and maternity – your rights
Every mother is entitled to a good standard of antenatal care and your midwife, nurse or Doctor should detect any signs which could lead to a birth injury. Some main causes of maternity injuries include:
- Failure to identify the progression of labour
- Mismanagement of maternal conditions such as high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia
- Decisions about the mode and timing of delivery e.g. should a c-section have been brought forward
- Mismanagement of infection e.g. Group B Strep
- Surgical errors
- Retained Placenta, sometimes resulting in infection.
If you feel you have suffered from medical negligence in relation to birthing injuries, get in touch with Oakwood Solicitors today.
Further reading
Birthing Injuries (Mother) – Oakwood Solicitors
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Jade Glover is a Solicitor in the Medical Negligence team. She has worked for the company for over 9 years and completed her training during that time. She has specialised in Personal Injury clai…
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