After more than a year of Covid-19, the numbers in maternity hospitals are in the red while more than 120,000 births are expected. A nightmare for the Order of Midwives which speaks of a “Summer that could be dramatic”.
Leave not replaced, exhausted caregivers, lack of temporary workers … the national council of the Order of Midwives is sounding the alarm and announcing that “Newborns and their mothers are in danger”. The reasons ? The many maternity hospitals encounter enormous difficulties in recruiting newly graduated midwives, so there will not be enough midwives to ensure the continuity of activities in the health establishments. A big first indicates the Order of Midwives in a communicated published on 06 July.
A preference for the liberal
Faced with precarious contracts and poor recognition of the profession, qualified midwives prefer to orient themselves towards the liberal. “Young midwives have a series of very precarious fixed-term contracts, paid on the basis of old disadvantageous salary scales and are rarely tenured”, indicates the Order of Midwives. Yet it is a tough summer for the profession, as 120,000 births are expected.
“Without any reaction from the authorities, the summer of 2021 could be dramatic” because “the reduced staff no longer makes it possible to guarantee the safety of the patients”, deplores the Order of Midwives. A midwife for 9 years, Marie testifies with disillusion on this situation in the columns of the Figaro “There are nights when only one midwife is present against four normally […] They (pregnant women) are referred to other hospitals, where they can find space ”, she laments.
Others like Marine, a temporary worker in Paris, explains to Le Figaro that “Some evenings this summer, there is only a midwife and a nurse to help her, if there is an emergency, we will be stuck”. Tragedies can quickly happen in these establishments, a baby who does not breathe, hemorrhages “sometimes we only have a few minutes to react “ hence the urgency to react immediately to this crisis in the community.
