Susanne Remic is a primary school teacher, freelance writer and parenting blogger. She writes at Ghostwritermummy and Maternity Matters and in between all of that she regularly wins mummy of the year awards for running around after her two children, aged six and 19 months. This is her pregnancy blog: an online diary of her third pregnancy as she strives to overcome two difficult births, one angel child and one awkward toddler. Join Susanne as she shares every step of her journey from bump to baby!
Midwife shortages are still a real problem
By Susanne Remic on 17 Aug 2011
The shortage of midwives at my local hospital contributed towards the appalling care I received before, during and after my son’s birth. To put it mildly, the lack of midwives robbed me of the birth experience I deserved and the after-care I was entitled to.
The lack of midwives meant that ultimately, I did not bond with my son as I was supposed to. I did not become a mother to him until he was much older and the memories of that hospital had faded a little. Walking out of that cold place, into the snowy December warmth was the first step towards recovery for us.
When I met with my midwife, she told me that by the time my baby is due, my local hospital shall be a Super Unit. Two other local maternity units will be closed. All of those women will be transferred to my local hospital. I told her that I had written to my MP to demand answers as to why my care there had been so awful. His response had been that he had invested a lot of time and money into making sure the Super Unit became a reality. He was certain that the Super Unit would ensure top quality care for women and would provide a number of jobs for the local area. He assured me that the quality of maternity care would be 100% improved so that situations like mine would be reduced.
I blogged about the letter from my MP on Ghostwritermummy. I was happy with his response.
My midwife then told me that they were expecting to deliver around 6,000 babies a year once the Super Unit has opened its doors. This is a significant increase. Well, at least they will have extra staff to deal with the extra patients, right? Um, wrong.
My midwife reluctantly told me that my local hospital expected to be able to deal with the extra deliveries with the same number of midwives they already have.
The night my son was born, I was put onto a busy ward which was staffed by one midwife and one student midwife. They did their very best but they could not attend to us all at once. I was traumatised. I was in intense pain from surgery. My skin was on fire from the general anaesthetic. My throat was red raw from the breathing tube they had used. My son was screaming. I was helpless. There was no midwife to help me.
I am glad that I won’t be giving birth at the Super Unit in February. But I am sad that many women will not receive the care they deserve. So many units are closing their doors because they just cannot cope. We need more midwives!
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