Exhausted midwives say ‘put up or shut up’ NHS culture puts mothers and babies at risk

Calls for tighter controls as maternity staff report pressure from management to work longer hours

- Phoebe D:

NHS midwives say unsustainable shift patterns and chronic under-staffing are putting the safety of mothers and babies at risk, and are calling for stricter legal protections on their working hours.

Last week Valerie Amos, who is leading the government's national review of maternity care, said in an interim report that families are receiving “unacceptable care” and that the situation was “much worse” than she had anticipated.

Midwives supporting the campaign say a “put up or shut up” culture in the NHS is leaving them so exhausted that they make mistakes. They say that, unlike other safety-critical roles such as bus or HGV drivers, midwives don’t have specific regulations mandating their breaks and rest.

Alice (not her real name) is a prac-tising community midwife in northwest England. She said that at least once a week she works “unsafe hours” because of shift patterns and her workload.