Call the midwife – again and again until they feel overwhelmed and dizzy

Call the midwife – again and again until they feel overwhelmed and dizzy A community midwife tells of the impossible workload of a typical shift in today’s overstretched, understaffed NHS

The autumn months are the busiest of the year for a midwife in the NHS. Christmas and new year excesses result in a predictable spike in the birth rate around September and the numbers only begin to settle as December approaches.

Today I begin my late autumn shift as a community midwife earlier than usual to sort out the day’s clinics and visits. I start at the hospital, looking through the paperwork of those women who have been discharged in the last 24 hours. Two midwives from my team have phoned in sick and another is on leave. We have six half-day clinics and 29 home visits to newly postnatal mums to cover between the two remaining midwives. Continue reading... The Guardian