ITV News joins midwives on shift in Newcastle
On Monday for the first time in the 133 year history of the Royal College of Midwives their members will strike in a row over pay.
It follows the governments rejection of a 1% pay rise for England’s midwives and the RCM, with the support of its’ members, has called for a walkout.
Ahead of the four hour strike on Monday morning we spent a day filming midwives in Newcastle. We joined the midwives on shift at the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s Birthing Centre.
They work 12 hour shifts from eight till eight. We were there for the night shift.
Within minutes of the shift starting 26 year old Marion Cook walked through the door. She was assessed and immediately admitted into one of the 12 birthing suites.
For the next five hours we followed her progress from that initial check-up to the birth of her baby girl through the eyes of her midwife Maggie Paiton. Maggie has been a midwife for 24 years and on the night we joined her, which was apparently a quite night, she didn’t stop.
As well as comforting and encouraging her patient Maggie was in and out of the suite filling out paper work, answering phone calls from full-term mothers at home believing they might be in labour and sorting out the equipment and drugs Marion needed as her labour progressed.
There were four midwives on staff the night we were there and every single one of them told me they love their job. They routinely work their 12 hour shift without a break and stay late, sometimes up to 15/16 hours in order to see a labour through.
The strike on Monday is being held with the full backing of Royal College of Midwives members but I was told they are taking this action with a heavy heart.
The RCM has calculated that the 1% pay rise they have been denied is the equivalent of 13 hours overtime and with the average midwife working 2 hours of unpaid overtime a week, there’s real anger and frustration at the increase they are being refused.
That’s what has driven the RCM to take industrial action.
The four-hour walk out will target ante and post natal appointments only, no delivery or acute services will be disrupted but the midwives hope this small stand will highlight how the services they provide rely heavily on their goodwill and the commitment and passion they have for their job.
The midwives who allowed us to film with them on their shift said no salary increase that could rival the reward of seeing a baby born but all they ask is to be paid fairly for what they do.